The Most Silent of Screams
by NoSlashScreamer
Summary: Post Predacons rising. Starscream is murdered by the Predacons, but to his surprise he still lives on, so to say. In another realm he is overpowered by a lust for revenge, uncontrollable emotions and is hunted by dark creatures with deadly intent. As the living world continues on, he must learn about his past and better his future, or be wiped out of existence forever.
1. Chapter 1

Starscream transformed and landed before the throne of Darkmount. It was there, empty and welcoming him.

The seeker stood proudly, feeling overjoyed. Sure it had taken a long time, but after a life time of struggles, treachery, pain and effort, he had finally done it. The throne, his throne, stood in front of him.

"This is not quite how I envisioned my rise to the throne," he said to himself. "But since Megatron all but left it to me, I will gladly revive the Decepticons in my name."

Just saying those words out loud made him feel even more enjoyed, but then, slow and powerful wings beats sounded behind him, and all his emotions plunged into a deep, deep cold feeling of fear. He cringed, turned around and gasped.

Looking even more fearsome when illuminated by the moonlight, stood the three menacing figures of the Predacons. Predaking let out a terrifying screech, and then stared down at him with a dark, icy glare. Darksteel and Skylynx growled behind him.

"But of course, the throne would be more fitting of an actual- king?" Starscream gasped out.

Predaking transformed and walked towards him.

"I did not come here to seek throne, Starscream," he said.

The Predacons walked forward menacingly. Starscream fearfully stepped backwards.

"But to settle old scores."

Starscream was absolutely terrified. He tripped backwards, falling on the throne. The Predacons closed in on the quivering seeker.

"Wai-wait, no-

Suddenly Predaking grabbed Starscream harshly and threw him towards the other Predacons. Starscream shrieked but was cut off when he landed hard at the claws of Skylynx. Before Starscream could get over the shock Skylynx grabbed his wing with his teeth, biting down hard. Starscream hollered in pain, striking his am up to slash at Skylynx's eye. Skylynx screeched in irritation and dropped him.

Darksteel caught Starscream under his claws. Starscream panicked, struggling madly but to no avail. Darksteel raked the claws of his other hand across Starscream's chest and down to his abdomen, and energon splattered his face.

Starscream screamed in agony. Skylynx came back over nudging Darksteel aside to have a go at the seeker next. Darksteel lifted his claws, but out of all realms of possibility, Starscream flipped over and sprinted as fast as he possibly could to the edge.

The pain that should have rendered him crippled, he couldn't feel it at all. His only instinct right then was self-preservation. He was absolutely filled with fear, and even with a bloodied form he leapt off the edge and transformed, jetting away.

He flew until he could no longer. He transformed and landed in a building with a hole in the roof. There, he fell forward, gasping. Choking on the energon that trickled out his throat.

"Oh Primus, oh Primus..."

Suddenly a burst of color exploded in the dawning horizon. A rainbow of fireworks erupted, flying into different directions. Right away Starscream knew that those were sparks, released from the Well. And even he felt awed, despite the pain.

Some were flying toward him. They were travelling so fast, it did not take long for them to reach him. Then, something strange happened. Instead of zooming onward and past him, some of the sparks flew into the building, stopping abruptly. As if caught off guard, they hovered and watched him.

More stopped and regarded him, a crowd forming. They began to move then. Suddenly they were swirling around him. Colors bright and flashy became streaks as they moved faster and faster. Soon he was blinded as he sat in the tornado of colors. Then, unbearable pain, as if he was being torn apart, and Starscream screamed, long and loudly. The blood poured from his wounds, more than he would have thought possible.

He collapsed, the world turning black, black. Cold filled the room and then the world went dead quiet.


	2. Chapter 2

He woke in the med room of the Nemesis. He sat up in the berth, looking around him. He noticed right away that there was no one around, and that he was all alone.

Looking down at his body, he gasped in shock. The wounds were gone, not even scars left to show that they were once there. Straight away Starscream wondered how long he had been out, and was amazed at the medical work of whichever medic had healed him.

He got up, surprised at how good he felt. Peeking out into the hall, he saw no one, so he stealthily snuck out. Although he truly wanted to escape, his curiosity wanted to know what happened and when they found him.

He walked to the control room, avoiding the attention of the vehicons along the way. He knew the Autobots would be there, and he hoped indefinitely that he could sweet-talk his way into their favor.

The door was open, which was quite odd, but Starscream guessed that the Autobots had more of an open mindset than that of a Decepticon. As he approached, he heard their voices.

"So, were you able to find out what that signal was you found yet?" Knockout asked.

"Not yet, " responded Ratchet. " Just let me, ah, there we go. It was a high frequency signal, but that's all there is. There's no message."

"No message? Like, they didn't have time to send one out or something? What gives?" Smokescreen added.

"Who's it from?" Arcee interjected.

" Let me see..." Ratchet huffed. "It's from Starscream."

"What would he want from us? " Wheeljaack spoke up.

"It might be a trap," Arcee growled.

Starscream was becoming more and more confused. A signal? He didn't recall doing such a thing. Yet, they weren't acknowledging his presence aboard the ship. How could they not know? Weren't they the ones who healed him?

"Where's his location?" Knockout asked.

"It's... the message come from the coordinates of Darkmount," Ratchet replied.

"I'm not surprised. But should we check it out?" Arcee suggested.

Wait, what? Starscream was at a loss for words. Signal, at Darkmount? But that was a long time ago, wasn't it? He had already recovered from his wounds, so how could they not know? How come they are only getting this signal now? What...

Starscream didn't even know what to think anymore. As Ratchet had opened up a groundbridge, Starscream stumbled into the room.

"Okay, would someone please be kind enough to tell me what the frag is going on right now?" He exhaled.

No one turned around to look at him. What, were the Autobots deaf or something?

"Um, hellooo?" Starscream said, walking toward them. "Someone tell me what's happening right now!"

Bulkhead and Arcee transformerd their arms into blasters, and Wheeljack pulled out his swords.

"You three, keep your comm link on so the rest of us can be on your stand by," Ratchet said.

The three Autobots disappeared into the portal, but Ratchet kept it open.

"Slaggit. I don't know what kind of advantage you're getting off of this, but I demand that you stop your trickery this instant!" Starscream growled.

Then suddenly, everyone and Starscream stopped to listen as Wheeljack's voice came in through the comm link.

"Yah uh, Ratchet? We have a... situation."

Ratchet moved up to controls, pushing a button to respond.

"I'm here. What is it?"

"It's a, it's a slaggin' mess. I don't know how to describe it to you, I think you should have a look for yourself."

Ratchet gravely turned around, and walked into the portal. Curiosity was in the other Autobots, and so they all followed him into the groundbridge as well. Starscream, not sure what to do, followed them.

They were once again at Darkmount. When Starscream came through, all he heard was the gasps and murmuring of shock. Starscream, not able to see, stepped around them. What he saw almost made him pass out, he coughed out a sob.

Before everyone was a scene of gore. There was energon, a lot of it. Sticky underfoot, splattered and pooled across the floor, smeared on the throne. Small pieces of metal, and pieces of body parts were strewn everywhere. A tailfin at their feet, ripped wiring across the room. But in the center, a mangled body lay. And it was his body.

His body was ripped with claw marks, deep, jagged and brutal. His wings contorted metal ribbons, his legs ripped from top down. Arms in the same condition, like a knife cut it open to expose all inside. But his abdomen, even the Autobots optics were bugged out in astonishment of it all. His guts had been torn out, spilled out and ripped apart. Glass sparkled in the energon, as his cockpit had been destroyed when they pulled out all his organs... but his face, only a scratch marked it. His eyes were black, his body limp and cooling.

"By the Allspark," Ratchet gasped.

"The Predacons... did-did they do this?" Bumblebee gasped.

"He's, he's dead..." breathed Arcee.

Starscream collapsed. Staring at his body. A dream, it had to all be a bad dream! But then, things began flashing through his memory. Starscream then knew that he never did escape, and that something completely different had occurred.

He didn't fly away.

Darksteel raised his claws, and Skylynx grabbed his arm with his teeth.

Darksteel raked his claws over his frame

Again and again.

Skylynx tore at him, tearing open his legs, wings chest. The missiles, thrown away.

He was thrown across the room, towards Predaking.

The fangs wrapped around his body.

Smashed on the throne, thrown and skidding across the floor.

Starscream remembered the pain, it had been more intense than anything anyone could had imagined.

He remembered crying openly, being so terrified, wishing beyond hope that someone in the world would hear his screams, that someone could have helped him.

In the short time he had, he had sent a last resort message.

It was too late.

Predaking grabbed his core, shattering the cockpit between his teeth. Starscream tried scratching at his face, but Predaking only growled. Starscream had been screaming, louder, and louder. Louder even as he saw the Predacon tear out his guts right in front of him.

When Predaking relented, they all stood around him to watch him finally bleed to death. Out of all the memory flashes, Starscream saw this one the clearest.

In his final moments, he stared up into those dark, cold optics. And he was staring at all the sadistic faces of his murderers before his body went still and he died.

Starscream collapsed before his body. He wanted to scream, to scream out to somebody. But he was distressed. He hadn't wanted to die, to have his life just taken away so suddenly from him. It all seemed too sudden, so unfair.

Starscream collapsed. He put his helm into his servos and quietly sobbed.


	3. Chapter 3

Bulkhead surprisingly, was the first to move forward from the solemn group of Autobots.

"We- we should do something…" he suggested.

"Optimus would want us to give him a proper burial," Bumblebee said.

Knockout sighed, and the Autobots all turned to look at him. They then realised how much more he would be affected then they were, since he had actually known Starscream.

"We should put his grave somewhere nice, somewhere high… he would have liked that," Knockout barely whispered.

Arcee, although she despised the seeker and had wished for his death for a long time coming, she was surprised by the suddenness of it all. She wanted to feel satisfied, but the violent end he had received had fazed her. She didn't know why it was, in her mind she felt that he had it coming for a long time. Yet, now that it was right in front of her, in the present time, she just wasn't able to objet that he be put to rest in a formal, honorable way.

"Lets go get the tools then," Ratchet said.

Some of them went with Ratchet through the portal, while some stayed and stared around them at all the gore they had to clean up. Wondering what they would even be able to piece back together.

Then they returned, cleaning utensils, stretcher, and buckets of sanitizing liquid. Silently, some took the mops and began washing away the energon that soaked the floor. Ratchet, and Bulkhead however, walked toward the corpse. Ratchet, with an unreadable expression, began stuffing some of his guts back into his body the best that he could. Bulkhead then picked up Starscream's body, placing him on the stretcher.

Wheeljack went to grab the other end, and the two wreckers lifted up the stretcher. His bloody form limp, a ripped arm hanging over the side, shredded wings stiff.

They began to walk toward the portal, the Autobots watching.

And Starscream watching everything as well. He was shaking, gasping.

Suddenly, he leaped upward, and ran toward the wreckers.

"S-Stop! Put me down, now! Now!"

Starscream dashed at them, lashing out his arm to grab Bulkhead.

His arm went through him. Starscream yelped in horror.

"No! No, no,no, no,no!" He cried.

Bulkhead and Wheeljack disappeared through the portal.

"No! Don't take me! I'm not dead! I am not dead!"

Starscream ran toward Knockout, who was picking up pieces of his metal and putting it in a bucket.

"Knockout! Look at me! I'm alive, see?"

But even when Starscream tried to grab him by the shoulders, or when Starscream shouted at him face to face, Knockout still continued to work on.

"Knockout, I'm right in front of you! Can't you see me?"

He whirled around and ran towards Bumblebee.

"Tell me this isn't true!" He asked him.

He ran toward Arcee, who was mopping the energon off of the throne.

"Arcee!" He gasped. "I know you hate me, but you must know. I'm not dead. You know this..."

She never turned around to look at him. Starscream whirled around, wanting to shout, wanting someone in the world to hear him. Someone in the world to tell him that he was okay, alive and well.

He ran through the portal, bursting back into the control room of the Nemesis. Seeing no one, he raced through the halls, running through vehicons who failed to notice his presence.

His sight grew darker, the lights dimming. He dashed into the med room, where he saw Ratchet, Wheeljack and Bulkhead. He heard them talking, but their voices were becoming quieter and harder to hear.

Bulkhead shifted to the side, and Starscream caught a glimpse of his body. Through the shock and the thickening darkness his vision blurred. Starscream felt like reality was slipping away from him, and soon he saw, heard and felt nothing at all.

It felt like much time had passed.

Voices broke the silence, whispering at first, then growing louder in volume. Starscream opened his optics and looked at his surroundings.

He was standing before an amazing gold and orange sunrise that was illuminating the horizon, staining everything in its colours. A relaxing breeze blew, warm and comforting to the frame. Not far in front of him was a cliff, which dropped off steeply. It overlooked the vast ruins of the old seeker capital, Vos.

Starscream turned away from the view, and saw the Autobots clustered there.

"I think it's perfect," Knockout sighed.

The grave was the underground type, different as usually it would be a pile of rocks on top of the corpse in common burial. But this grave was an unmarked one, so that it would not be disturbed by any random visitor.

The Autobots stared at the disturbed soil, standing silently.

"He was our enemy for so long, it all seems strange that we are doing this for him," admitted Bulkhead.

"I don't know what to say," said Smokescreen. "We've been fighting this guy for ages, but I never actually knew him personally."

"Knockout, you did though. Wha- what was he really like?" Bumblebee asked.

"He..." Knockout sighed, then gave a small smile. " He was commanding, and often rude. We didn't always get along, but before the final battle we became more like acquaintances. We survived a zombie apocalypse together, but I already told you that story before. . ."

Knockout looked up at the faces of the listening Autobots.

"But no one on board couldn't say that he wasn't intelligent, and by far the most skilled flyer. He was fast and agile; no one could match him in the air. I remember the first time I met him face to face, the first thing he did was chastise me for being a wheeler."

Starscream listened and hung on to every word, feeling weighed down because those memories seemed so far away and unreachable.

"He was leader back then, and although most didn't believe it, he was actually competent at the job. But it was true he was very treacherous, and so when Megatron returned he beat the living scrap out of him, until he was nearly dead in fact," Knockout said. "But he survived this more than once, and I think that over time it had changed his actions. Maybe he was once a nice guy, but war really does change everyone."

"You make it harder to feel angry at all the terrible things he's done," Arcee sighed.

"We all have done some regrettable things," Knockout continued. " But after all has been said and done, it makes me feel better to know that he will always rest alongside Vos, almost like he can watch over the reconstruction when we start rebuilding there."

They stood there in silence for a few minutes, then on each of their own time,

They walked into the groundbridge fifty metres away. The last standing was Knockout, and Starscream walked over to stand by his side. They both stood and stared a little longer at the grave, before Knockout whispered quietly.

"I'm sorry that I hit you in the face with the Immobilizer. I'm sorry for... everything. I hope your next life will be a better one."

Then Knockout turned and left, the groundbridge closing behind him. Starscream remained, blankly looking on. But his mind was in turmoil, trying to process the time passage, events and reality. But one thing remained strong and clear, and Starscream was struck dumbfounded by the shock of it all.

He was dead. But his spark was lost, and he was trapped in a whole, new world.

All.

Alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Starscream stayed until the sun had fully risen. It was mesmerizing really, just to watch light wash over the ruins of a city who had witnessed such a violent end. Starscream was on a moonbase at that time, and he remembered watching the news feed of Vos's destruction. Screen shots of flaming explosions that erupted even after the laser hit, vaporized and scorched buildings, blackened corpses everywhere.

It was a hard blow, and he had never really gotten over it. Bitter anger, and a rageful blackness filled his spark. Someone needed to pay, and when Megatron offered his hand out to him, he had gladly taken it.

Now it was a barren place. Dust blew over the rubble of what had used to be the tallest towers on the planet. Whenever it would be rebuilt, Starscream hoped it was returned to its former glory, and once again populated by the most elite of the seekers, like it was once upon a time.

Starscream flew to the city, landing on a dirty street. Walking was strange however, as he merely just stepped through the rubble, and dust did not crunch underfoot. It was like he was in another dimension, unable to touch or move anything. Yet the ground he felt, like it was the only thing shared in both worlds.

The wind whistled through the holed structures. The silence unnerved him, yet he knew he shouldn't have no fear because nothing could touch him in this form. But the eeriness of being here, seeing the shadows burnt into the ground, awakened remorse.

What would it had been like? To die so swiftly, before even realising what was happening. Did they go peacefully? Or did they become detached like he did, unable to rejoin the Allspark.

The rage reawakened. He snarled, eyes glinting fiercely. He flexed his claws. How he wished he could make contact with something, just to bring pain to the Predacons for what they had done! They stole his life, like those of the seekers of this city. He wasn't ready to die! What right had they to just take this life from him? He didn't deserve it!

Full of anger, he transformed and flew from the city. He knew he wouldn't be able to hurt them, or they wouldn't be able to see him. But he wanted to see his murderers, to know what they did after they had killed him. He flew far and long, finding that now he knew he was dead, he no longer felt any physical pain. He could never tire.

The long plains in where the Predacon fossils used to be, that's where he knew the Predacons would be residing. He transformed to his bipedal form when he arrived at the ledge overlooking the valley.

Where were they? He had expected them here. Looking around, he saw signs of their presence in the form of fresh claw marks. Where-

Suddenly, off in the distance he heard the tell-tale screech of Predaking. Instinctively he ducked for cover, remaining there even after the Predacons had landed. The three had touched down, but then there was another thud.

Confused, Starscream peeked around the corner and gasped. It screeched a call different from the other Predacons, glaring around at the landscape. He knew who this was. The Predacon that Shockwave was cloning during the time when they were working together. It was finally fully developed.

All the predacons transformed, turning to converse with one another.

"This is the place, Ripclaw," Darksteel explained. "Our lovely demain."

Ripclaw transformed and took it all in, eyes widening in wonder.

"So, this is really the place where all the dead rose?"

"Indeed," Predaking replied. " But before, I had treated it as sacred ground, and I hope it should still be treated that way."

"I shall respect your wishes, my king," the new and strange- looking in her bot form Predacon answered.

All of his fear disappeared, replaced by rage. What the frag? They kill him in a violent, cruel way, then decide to be fragging honorable?

Starscream leapt out from behind the boulder, growling.

"You slaggin' hypocrites! How dare you pretend to be respectable or honorable? You are nothing but violent creatures, without virtues!" He shrieked.

But of course, the Predacons couldn't hear or see him. They continued their conversation.

"It' great to have another Predacon around," Skylynx said. "But did Shockwave say he was going to clone more?"

"I would hope so," Predaking replied. "But we must respect his wishes, and be thankful for everything he has given us already."

Shockwave? That slagger, he was the one who created these brutes! How dare they respect him? Starsceam had been just as responsible for the final three Predacons' creations, how dare they murder him and moon over that mech?

"I hate you all!" He shouted. "You all deserve to die in slow, painful ways! You don't deserve to life, you creatures are unworthy of life!"

He ran forward, slashing at their bodies with his claws, raking them down like he was ripping open their legs. He snarled in rage, racing towards Ripclaw. He leapt upward, clawing at her optics.

How he wished they actually felt it. Every time he attacked, he grew even angrier when his blows just went through them. He wanted them to feel pain so desperately, every single one of them. Ripclaw in addition, if not just as equally as the rest. She must have known what the other Predacons did, before they went to pick up her up. But of course, she probably knew. She probably did not give a frag either way.

Starscream finally relented, screaming in frustration.

"You killed me, and you don't care! You tore me apart, then act like nothing happened! How dare you disown me like this!"

The Predacons turned away, like they were completely ignoring him, Starscream transformed and jetted away. It was unbearable, to not be able to do anything. To not have anyone there to listen to him and understand.

So the seeker flew, far, far away to other side of the similar yet so very different world that he was experiencing. As time continued to move forward, the anger ebbed away. Slowly, Starscream was filling up with the weight of depression.

What had his life meant then? Since the beginning of his life in the Decepticons, fighting for survival had been a daily routine. He told Knockout before, being the second in command was the hardest position to maintain. Everyone wanted that post, and most would kill for it. Starscream had to kill in order to continue living, and kill just to keep a good reputation with Megatron. Then, what had their lives meant?

This was something Starscream hadn't thought about before. Honestly, he had never cared about anyone but himself for the longest time. His seekers were killed off one by one, and soon he was the only one remaining of his command. When they were gone, the only thing left to lose was himself.

But what was the difference between his life and theirs? They all had the same motives, so what did it matter which one of them died? In reality, Starscream now realised that everyone he killed had been so much like himself. And now he knew what they would have felt, to be victims of murder.

There was a twinge in his spark. Was he really such a terrible mech? He'd done so many horrible things in life... but was that self-defence or something else?

Suddenly the world in front of him smeared, becoming a blur of colours. When everything refocused, he saw Six Lasers Over Cybertron beneath him. He transformed, landing on what used to be the tracks of the most popular roller coaster in the amusement park.

He had teleported to the location of Shockwave's laboratory! Strange, but then it also made sense. It seemed that where ever he thought of, he could teleport to that location. So that when he wished for aid, it explained why his spirit form appeared in the med room of the Nemesis.

Yet he still wasn't quite sure why his sub consciousness brought him here, so he climbed down to theg round, and walked to the hideaway where he used to work with Shockwave. He entered, taking in the familiar surroundings.

There were less energon cubes than before, but that was because there weren't two giant beasts guzzling them down in what seemed like an hourly basis. There, across the room, was Shockwave, as typical, working.

Starscream noted that the cloning tank was empty, even of the CNA. Perhaps this meant that he would no longer be making more clones? Starscream hoped so. Those kinds of creatures, as he saw it, didn't even deserve to exist.

Off in the distance, Starscream heard the sound of a fast approaching engine. A powerful one.

Shockwave turned from his work, standing and waiting until Megatron entered into his lab.

"I was beginning to wonder if you would have accepted my invitation," Shockwave rumbled.

Megatron was silent for a moment before he answered.

"I needed time for myself, but now I realise I need aid the world in the destruction I caused."

"A logical assumption," Shockwave responded. " But you know why I wished you to be here. In the short time you were parted, many events took place that which I believe you need to be informed of."

"Please Shockwave, go on," Megatron said.

"It was because of my isolation that I had also not known this until the Predacons relayed the information to me. Foremost, Optimus had deafeated Unicorn by trapping his being in the container that once held the Allspark. Yet to accomplish this, he had stored the Allspark inside his chasis. Unfortunately, with the multitude of sparks inside him, Cybertron would not be able to create new life, and so Optimus perished for the well being of our planet."

Starscream and Megatron both assumed astonished expressions. What, the prime was dead? Starscream hadn't known this, but then it did explain his overall absence. But the whole time he was assuming that he was on another star-crossed adventure, probably looking for refugees. Yet the history was surprising. So noble that even he was able to appreciate it.

"Ah, Orion was always the noble one, always striving for the greater good," Megatron sighed. "He will be missed."

It wasn't much, but considering that Megatron had been Optimus's enemies for so long, the fact that he had said anything so respectable was proof enough of his change of personality.

"Likewise, the predacons had also told me of another's passing," Shockwave continued. "A victim of their fury, Starscream perished from fatal wounds, just as recently."

"Starscream..."Megatron sighed. "His demise affects me, but I also feel that it was by his own faults."

"That is true. In his time here with me, and on the Nemesis, he never did treat the Predacons with any kind of respect. As Predaking explained it to me, they had suffered too much humiliation for him, and so they decided to settle old scores."

"Thank you for telling me this," Megatron said. "Although both are unfortunate, knowing of them will aid me in the future. Now I must seek out the Nemesis, and offer my services to the Autobots. It was a pleasure seeing you again, Shockwave."

"Likewise," Shockwave replied, turning back to his work.

Megatron transformed and flew off, but Starscream followed in his wake. Of course it shocked him to hear of Optimus's end, but it also saddened him to hear of his end as well. Like just the repetition of those words mad him feel like a sharp pain fill his chest, like a burning knife. It really did hurt him.

Starscream wanted to keep experiencing the world, thus he wished to see how well the Autobots worked with the former warlord. He followed the former warlord.


	5. Chapter 5

The Autbots must have detected his incoming signal, as they met Megatron outside, on the ground just outside the Nemesis. Starscream quickly noticed Ultra Magnus was now present, bearing some scars from recovering wounds.

"Greetings Megatron," Ultra Magnus said. "What is it that you require?"

"I had some time to myself, and I have thought over some things," he said directly to the point. "And I wish to aid you all in the reconstruction of Cybertron. The destruction was at the cause of my actions, so it only seems suiting."

"That will be much appreciated, Megatron," Ultra Magnus said. "We work every day with the help of the vehicons, so you may start at any time. We can show you the coordinates where."

"Thank you," the larger mech replied. "But I also came here to clarify the news I've heard. What happened with Optimus, did he truly sacrifice himself for the well-being of the planet?"

The Autobots looked solemn, some nodding slowly.

"Yes, this is true," Ultra Magnus replied.

"That was very noble of him, I am grateful. And yet, I am also curious on the recent events including Starscream," he continued.

The Autobots looked at each other with grave faces. Starscream stood more rigid, silently awaiting the words following. It was Ratchet who answered this time.

"We received a blank distress signal two days ago, but when we went to check it out we were met with a scene of carnage. It was quite obvious it was the Predacons who had committed the act, as it took quite the time to clean up."

"I see," Megatron nodded. " As for the construction, if you would permit it, I could start right away."

"Of course," Ultra Magnus said, stepping to the side. "The coordinates can be provided to you inside."

The Autobots and former warlord went back towards the stationed warship. Megatron, with his larger and upgraded form, standing awkwardly tall over them all.

Yet even though he had followed Megatron this far, he didn't feel the need to follow them inside. It was like he was urged or compelled to do something, but he never truly knew what. He was going all over this world, yet still never feeling like he belonged anywhere. It was so that when he blinked, he found himself back at his grave overlooking Vos.

It was nearing the end of the cycle. The first rays of twilight etched the sky, and a cool strong blew, taking with it swirls of dust and rubble. If he could have felt it, it would have been sharp and discomforting.

He shivered, but felt no cold. Again, the fear of being alone made him feel apprehensive. He looked around him, feeling as though something was near him. But of course he saw nothing but the shadows and broken buildings beyond the soil of the cliff side.

The sun was long over the horizon. Now its rays were angled in the way where it brightened the large moons. The stars were pinpointed as the blackness spread across the sky. It was quiet and beautiful, and it was calming after such a dramatic, stressful day. He slowly sat, with his legs dangling over the cliff. It was a conscious attempt on trying to wind down.

But that chill remained. The shadows were lager, things were becoming unrecognizable. He felt smaller in this world of darkness. He wasn't sure whether or not it was just him being paranoid, still angry and depressed, so fear was his way of putting it all together. He forced himself to look away from the shadows behind him, forcing himself to ignore the problems he was creating for himself.

So he sat a little longer, just processing everything that had passed today, and trying to string together his emotions and thoughts. It had apparently been two days since his death, but it had all happened in such a rush, and he missed the night before any way. It was so hard to grasp and handle.

He was then just thinking much more upon what his life had meant, when suddenly he heard a quiet dragging sound. He whipped around, seeing nothing. His red optics peered into the dark. It surely must have been the wind. If not, he reassured himself, there was still nothing to worry about.

But even when he tried to remind himself that he was dead and that nothing could hurt him, a strange intuition arose. He couldn't tear his gaze away from the line of pitch blackness behind him. He stood up, tense.

Then a clinking sound came from under the cliff side. But closer. Part way up the cliff perhaps? He was going to check it out, but the same noise came from the darkness. A metallic click.

There was a darker shadow among the black. Or was it? Was it imagination? He regarded it more closely, trying to make sure. That was when the form moved.

It was slow, deliberate. But he was sure of its presence. He watched it, unsure of what kind of creature this was. Then another thing moved in the corner, another dark form. Something stretched out from it, an arm? And there was a sharp clinking noise as long claws stretched out, extending, extending.

There were more creatures. They were more arriving, and clinking joints and scratching claws. Some low forms dragging across the ground, other slinking. But then slowly, the things turned, and bright glares of purple optics burned through the dark.

They got closer. He still couldn't see them in full, but there where purple ridges between the joints, and the joints were sharp as far as he could tell. But those optics, they seemed to lock onto his form. Impossible though, he was dead. No one could see him.

He walked forward, cautious. The shapes followed him with his gaze. Closer they came on stalking limbs.

Then suddenly, one broke through the line of darkness. First a long, jagged clawed hand appeared, then another. The wrists clicked. An arm appeared behind it, dark and rusted, but with pale details of what used to be design. Then a terrible thing dragged itself fully from the darkness and Starscream gasped in surprise.

Half a bot dragged its body towards him. It was severed, with a black decayed stream of guts following it. Its body had dark spots of stains, and ripped metal scrapes. But the face was contorted, and although it appeared like that of a regular bot, it had somehow procured outward facing fangs, irregular and extending. Wild purple optics that seemed to flare, locked onto his red. The teeth opened, revealing a purple throat.

The other creature looked less like a mutated terrocon. The next one was a full beast with hooked talons, and sharp predatory features. A face of malice, complete with a long snout with snapping jaws full of jagged needle teeth. A longish neck with spiked neck plates to a broad chest, lithe abdomen and a whipping, darted long tail.

Beastly creatures snarled from the darkness, purple viscous optics forming where there were none before. Walking bodies torn, full of shot-holes, blown heads and clawed hands stumbled forward moaning. They all moved toward him slowly, but with purpose. Starscream backed away unsure, but stopped at the end of the cliff where he heard more growling and moaning. He looked down and saw a couple creatures inching up the rock wall, and they were so close that he stepped backwards as a grisly hand reached out for his ankle.

A dragging body suddenly got so close behind him that it sunk its crooked teeth into his heel. Deep. His blood leaked onto its face and he yelped in surprise. He transformed his arms into blasters and shot at the zombie below. The missiles went through it, and the fangs sunk deeper. He switched back and tried to scratch at its face. Purple ooze leaked out, but to his horror the wounds heal over instantly. He choked back a shriek, and wrenched free the leg from its grasp.

A predator suddenly lunged at him, in a flurry of rusty clicking noises. He leapt to the side, but another had already rushed forward as well. He desperately wished to be in the proximity of the Autobots, somewhere where he wasn't alone and where he was away from the creatures. But nothing happened, he didn't teleport.

As he was surrounded and struck with terror, he jetted away without hesitation. Thankful none pursued him, being incapable of flight, he streaked away as fast as he possibly could. He was feeling light and hot, completely in shock. Images of groaning dead bodies and prowling predators followed him in his mind, for the fear remained. Fear of the only things in this dimension he knew of, wished to harm him. Could harm him. Make his dead spirit _bleed_.

But the problem weighed him down, and it made him full heavy because the fear that they were hunting him, and there was nothing he could do to defend himself. He couldn't hurt them, he couldn't stop them from inflicting pain upon him. They could potentially kill him, if that was possible. Completely. Destroy his spark, never to be reborn anew again. Wiped from existance.

His fears were renewed when he noticed in his secondary visual systems. In the city of Vos, were speckles of glowing purple, glaring from the streets and building, watching him fly away. Hundreds of pairs of optics, hundreds of predator creatures and moaning zombies.

And slowly but deliberately, like in the start, they were trudging the far expanse of land to follow the direction of his retreating form.


	6. Chapter 6

He flew for the better part of the night, still unable to teleport. He found refuge in the closest place with an inhabitant, and this was Shockwave. The glowing light of the lab leading him to it.

When he landed, he automatically went to sit as putting weight upon his foot stung. But as he had been in his alt-form, the blood had continued to leak on parts of his frame, so he was drenched in some places. He shivered in the overall shock, and lifted up his leg to look at the bite. Gingerly he poked at the wound with a finger, he gasped when a wave a pain went up his leg. It was unbelievable, that the dead could be injured, but there it was.

He layed on the floor to rest, wanting to lean on the wall but obviously unable to. He sat for a bit, just gasping and trying to settle down. Across the room he watched Shockwave work, oblivious to his suffering. Typing and researching theories, some quite advanced ones at that.

A lot of the technology and science had been developed by Shockwave though. The purple mech was undoubtedly genius, and had throughout his life created the unbelievable. From brutal experiments to weapons of mass destruction, all were incredible in different ways.

The mech's cold, emotionless attitude had always unnerved him. But now, he felt safer just in being beside him, like he had someone to protect him from the strange but viscious creatures. Even if he had threatened to kill him not too long ago, having a broad, stubborn figure that didn't let any frag detour him near Starscream was comforting.

And that was surprising. It had been so long since he had felt he could be safe with another person. It had been so long since he trusted someone, even if they didn't even know about it. He was self-reliant, as only he himself had kept himself alive for that long.

Yet pondering upon this brought up another thought. Perhaps that had been his problem. He distrusted everyone, and had no confidence in anyone. It was always fear, and he preferred getting rid of the threat, even if it wasn't really a threat in the first place. He wanted to survive, and his bad experiences told him that pain came from others… like Megatron. But Megatron was a threat he couldn't get rid of, no matter how hard he had tried.

Being leader was what he used to want before he was pushed into obedience. Power was the way to destroy all threats, and so he wouldn't have to endure anything anymore. If he could be ridden of Megatron, then life might have been better. Or would it have been? Being leader suited him because it was a solo job. But solo wasn't the best for him, now that he thought about it. He had no one to support or protect him, and he wasn't as physically powerful as Megatron.

He remembered his encounter with Skyquake. How foolish he had been. He attempted to get that mech to serve him, but there was no motive for Skyquake to do that because he was much more powerful than him. What had happened? He got sent flying smack into a rock wall. He didn't die, but if a fight had endured, he would have been expected as a leader, to deal with his problems by himself. Hardly.

And yet his arrogance had continued with the Predacons. He tried to rule them with pain and hate, but that had only built their anger. And they were much larger than he, so they wouldn't take his slag for that long at any rate. But that desire he had, to get them to yield before him, giving him a feeling of power, it all was interconnected.

His streaming thoughts of his life experiences were interrupted when a purple light suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision. He screamed in fear before he fully realised that it was just a light appearing on a screen. Frag he was on edge.

But then something astonishing happened. Just after his scream, the screens around the room and the one which Shockwave was working on fizzed and turned into a screen of static. Two seconds later they returned back to normal. Shockwave paused midway through typing, legitimately surprised. He checked the wiring, trying to find the cause of the technical difficulty. But he was not as astonished as Starscream had been.

Had he done that? Did his scream cause the fault? It excited him, raises his hopes that he was actually able to persuade something in the other world. Were there other things he could do, perhaps?

He forgot all his pain in the new possibility. He hoped above all that he could somehow get someone to become aware of his presence. To understand everything he was going through. To the pit and back.

But at that moment, he knew that his ankle was a problem to be dealt with first. It was so he decided to black out, hoping that when reality came back he would be healed.

Yet once again, he woke as the sun rose over the horizon, chasing away the horrors of the night's darkness. The beasts didn't seem so horrifying when he imagined them in the daytime.

He was still on the floor, and he sat up to look at his ankle. Incredible, it was already healing, and only a crooked scar remained. He could be hurt, and that was an obvious con, but at least out of all the trouble he's been having lately, he had something good going for him.

Shockwave was gone. He was probably out getting energon as no one else was around to get it for him. Alone again, Starscream stood up, able to hold his weight on this foot without collapsing. That was relieving.

Now he was in the Sea of Rust, the place where the Autobots had started the rebuilding. There was Megatron, up early and already busy carrying metal selves to and fro. Bulkhead was directing the clueless vehicons, finding out that even though they were individuals ( something neither Autobots or Decepticons seemed to care about), they did not perform any job well.

It was definitely a sight to behold, but once again he felt bitter anger towards the Predacons for taking away his ability to participate in that world. And the Autobots as well! Here they were, working with Megatron like great friends and all, like he wasn't ever a crazed evil tyrant who was responsible for the deaths of probably more than three fourths of the planet's old population. And even Knockout and Shockwave, they were all fine in the Autobots' books in seemes. But what did they do to him? Throw him in the brig. Of course he would be the only Decepticon punished. No one ever gave him second chances.

Of course he was untrustworthy, and just as cruel as Megatron had been, but no one knew him. Or rather, no one understood him and all the slag he dealt with. But no, he was the only 'con who had to suffer. He had no one to support him. Everyone hated him … but he hated the world and all its unjustness.

He might have wanted to attack them in vain, but he was afraid and confused. He wanted them to be hurt, but he also wanted to trust them and stay beside them. It was total confliction, and it was all internal turmoil under the threat of the dark creatures hunting him every second.

And so it became the new routine. Every new day was spent watching the reconstruction. Seeing the destroyed restored into a shiny new model. A week passed, and now the better part of the city was rebuilt. The sun was setting, and he knew he should have been returning to the safety of the Nemesis with the Autobots at this time when the darkness began spreading. But it was amazing. He was walking through a street clear of rubble and shards, and as dark neared there were city lights flickering on. This was the newest addition, as the finally connected the wires back to the power grid.

The lights were so simple and humble, yet he walked quietly through the street in appreciation. It had been so long since something had actually illuminated the streets, it had been so long since anyone had seen working streetlights, as in the war they exploded so easy in the crossfire. It was amazing how well it had been restored, like no historical battle had ever taken place here.

But the neon bluish lights were the only lights he wished to see in the night, so he jetted away to follow the Autobots, towards the place of refuge, walls and where he wouldn't be alone. He checked around the distance, making sure that the Nemesis would still be a safe place as there were no purple crowds coming.

Inside were celebrations. Everyone was very excited over their success with the rebuilt city, and the restoration of a major capital. They were chatting in the main room, and some sipping energon. Well, almost everyone as there, as Megatron had left to his room in the Nemesis.

Yet there it was, another thing that peeved him. He thought they had accepted Megatron way too quickly, to just let him live among them. Like what the actual frag. Slaggit his afterlife was so confusing and frustrating.

Again he asked himself what he had done to deserve this fate. As he saw it , a lot of things weren't truly his fault. And it wasn't like he was the worst, right? Again, anger that filled him every day whenever others were content and he was not arose. Those fraggin' Predacons.

He wished they would quarrel so one of them could be hurt or even better killed. He wanted a boulder to fall on one in a freak accident. Some parts of the day he went back to the valley, watching them in hopes something would happen. All they did was leisure, talk and then leave to explore the vast world in which none of them actually knew too well. Yet never did they ever bring him up in conversation, and this made him believe more and more that either Ripclaw didn't know or care about what her brethren did. Both possibilities were infuriating.

So he had ceased to go see them, as it had him too emotional so to say. Yet even here in safety he still hated them, the world, there was no end.

"I bet you all are just having the time of your life. I mean why wouldn't you? Now that I'm out of the way it's just so much easier now isn't it," he growled sarcastically to the deaf Autobots.

But then the sad truth depressed him, so he added. "It's good that you just forgot me."

So he was about to turn and leave when he heard something that made him freeze stiffly in fear. Just a voice, a voice that repeated some of the last words he had heard that voice say in life.

" 'Scream. It's been awhile."

He didn't even have to turn around. He knew who it was.

"I'm… sorry," Starscream whispered.


	7. Chapter 7

Emotions that had no words for them made his body heavy. Sudden realisations burst through his mind and the world was less muddled yet even more horrible at the same time. But the fact remained that he finally understood what he had done, and he hurt because of it. Felt guilt for the first time in a long time. His wings unintentionally drooped.

"I killed you," he whispered after a brief pause.

He turned and looked at Cliffjumper with true regret in his eyes.

"I murdered you."

The blue optics of the other held no sadness or anger, but… more like some kind of hard-achieved wisdom. How was he not fragged-up with anger and attacking him at that moment? Didn't he want to make him suffer for what he had done?

"Pretty much," Cliffjumper grinned a little.

"You- you don't, you're not angry?" He gasped. "But I- e-uh-"

"Meh. Of course I used to be, but I had a long time to think," he said.

"But don't you still care!? I- I stole your life, like those Predacons-" he choked. " I mean how could you possibly-"

" 'Scream, chill. That was a long time ago."

But Starscream swept an arm back to indicate the oblivious Autobots behind him.

"You should be there. It is because of what I did that you are not."

"Okay I will admit, it kinda sucks, but I've learned to deal with it. Or rather, to forgive," Cliffjumper said.

"You can never forgive me," Starscream sobbed. "Can't you see that?"

"The only thing I see is exactly what makes it possible to forgive you," Cliffjumper said. " That is you realising what you have done. For you, that is accomplishment enough."

Starscream exhaled a long, broken shudder. He looked at the Autobots for a second, then back at Cliffjumper, who was still watching him. The wings slowly rose back up.

Then more quietly he asked. "Then why are you still here? Why can't you join the Allspark?"

"I'm not 100% sure. But maybe because I wasn't ready to go or something. I didn't want to leave Arcee without knowing if she'd be okay. But then maybe because I needed the time to forgive you," the red mech replied.

"You've been watching the whole time…"

"Yes. I saw it all. I saw Arcee suffer, but then for the first time I saw you suffer. You were leading the Decepticons, and I remembered resenting everything you did too. But Megatron returned and beat the livin' scrap out of you and I was like frag that's different. I was confused, things happened after like Megatron going to shoot you in the face, but Arcee unintentionally saving you. That was the weirdest thing. Then you trick Arcee and fight her later, that geared me up. When she was going to slice your throat I was all for it. But she let you go. After that I was thinking differently."

"But why? Maybe I should-

"No. Watching how you changed personally was much better. When you went rogue it was interested to see how much you relied on self-preservation. I realized how you were treated affected you. But nothing surprised me more when you saved Arcee's life. I was powerless, and it was the worst feeling, I thought I was going to watch her die in front of me. Either by Airachnid or by you. But you cut her lose, and since then I stopped hating you."

"I did that because she didn't kill me before, it made us even," Starscream said.

"But you didn't kill her without mercy. That changes everything."

"I killed you without mercy. I killed you just because I got angry. You asked me where my 'master' was. I didn't want anyone to refer to me like I was anybody's slave…"

"I know," Cliffjumper said. " I learned about how you felt. You were hurt and often had your life threatened, and Megatron enforced oppression upon you more than others. No one understood your issues, and I made it seem as exactly as you put it. That he owned you."

"But I still only did it because you had irritated me. I stabbed you and made you watch your blood spill out as you died. The Predacons did that to me, and I will never forgive them."

"Lets take a walk," Cliffjumper suggested. "We shouldn't stay in here. We could walk through the new streets and chill out or something."

"Outside? No! Not at night!" He gasped.

"What? Scared of the dark 'Scream? I would have thought Decepticons-

"No, no of course not. But do you not know? The creatures, with purple optics and claws, they hid in the shadows…"

"Creatures? You must be joking, the only other things in this world are lost sparks like us," he grinned.

"I assure you they are real. They are hunting me, and have already inflicted harm," he shivered.

"What do they look like? Where are they?" Cliffjuper inquired.

"Some are like small Predacons, others are like grisly mutated terrocons. They attacked me in Vos, and there are a lot of them."

"Strange, I have never encountered them before. Maybe Unicorn has something to do with all this? Like with the purple optic gig and all," Cliffjumper suggested. "Even locked up, he might have control in the spirit world."

"But I couldn't harm them. My guns didn't hit them and they heal instantly. We can't stop them."

"Don't stress about it. If you don't want to go outside, then we won't go outside. Just recharge until morning then okay? We can fool around in the morning."

Then Cliffjumper walked through the wall and left him. Starscream was left blinking after him.

The day was well underway. He rose from the floor, finding that the only person in the room was Ratchet working on a computer. He walked out of the room, then went to exit the warship. Once again he was relieved to see no dark creatures. He then thought of the Sea of Rust, and then he was there at the construction site.

"Yo 'scream!"

Cliffjumper stood up from where he had been sitting and watching the building. He waved. He actually waved to him.

"Nice day today isn't it? It would be better if we could feel the warmth of the sun though," Cliffjumper joked. " But it took you long enough to wake."

But Starscream wanted to have some questions answered. Not to jest, for he was still new to this world

"Why do I recharge if I am dead? It does not seem that I tire…"

"it's something to do to pass the time I guess."

Starscream twitched a wing.

"Who else have you seen in this world? Anyone else we know?"

"Surprisingly yes. For a long time Skyquake was here. He didn't want to talk to me, but he was waiting for Dreadwing to go to the Allspark."

"So having your bodies infected with dark energon does not affect your spirit," Starscream mused.

"Not at all," Cliffjumper winked. "But those are the only either people I've met. Or talked to for that matter."

"Is there anything you can do to the other world? Can you show your presence or are we condemned to be unseen and unheard?"

"Nada. As far as I know there isn't anything I can do," Cliffjumper replied.

"Strange. When I screamed the screens static," hesmirked.

"Well they don't call you Starscream for nothing," he smiled. " But that's pretty neat. But not as cool as it would be to communicate with somebody, yah that would just make my day."

"We should at least try then, if you didn't know this, then who knows what we could be capable of," Starsrceam said.

"Anything else? Let me be your guide for all experiences of the afterlife."

Starscream was not amused.

"What about touching objects? Can that happen?" He continued.

"Only the floor on which we walk. Can't even lay on a berth to recharge-

It was then he remembered, after recommencing all his recent memories of the new world through his mind. The most stunning thing that he had forgotten; it made him double take

"But I have, I did in fact lay on a berth!" He gasped. "It was before I realized my passing. I was in the med room, I awoke on the berth!"

Cliffjumper laughed. "Man you took yours way worse than I did, I mean I never went nuts or anything-

"This is no laughing matter!" He growled harsher than he meant to. " What if we can affect the physical world? If we can get someone to know what's happening …"

"Even if you're right 'scream, they couldn't help us anyway. We are beyond saving."

"But what if we could touch things? Maybe there is a way, but we need the find it out for ourselves," Starscream pondered. "Maybe we could touch someone, make …."

He trailed off, stopping when he realized what he was going to say in front of Cliffjumper.

"Could what? Hurt them?"Cliffjumper's tone lowered. "You need to figure out some things 'scream. Don't you realize that it's not all about revenge? It isn't a solution, but it only makes problems worse. You of all mechs should know that."

Cliffjumper looked at him solemnly, and then was gone. Starscream looked around, but he was really gone, teleported somewhere completely away from Starscream.

" What? How dare you fraggin' just leave me? Just when we had just started resolving our differences," he muttered to himself.


	8. Chapter 8

***REFERENCES TO TRANSFORMERS PRIME NOVEL INCLUDED!**

* * *

In the silence that followed, Starscream thought about what his next move should be. The idea of communicating with someone in the other world was intriguing. Perhaps he could figure out what to do, to make contact with an actual object once more.

A pile a metal slabs stood before him, waiting to be used as walls for a building. So he exhaled slowly, and drew his hand out over top of it, extending his fingers. He went to draw careful claw marks in the metal. Closer he drew, the tip of his index finger hovering just above the material. With complete focus and concentration, his finger went through the surface of the metal.

He lifted his hand, and tried again. The same result ensued. He tried again, becoming frustrated and ended up swiping at the metal with both hands now.

"Come on!" He hissed through clenched teeth.

He gave up. Now his anger ebbed away, and a frown marked his face.

"But I did it before. What was different then?" He tapped a claw on his chin.

He hadn't known he was dead when it happened, did that mean that there still was a connection to the actual world then? Or maybe it only happened when he felt large bouts of emotion. He now tried to envision the pile before him as the Predacon face of Predaking to raise a strong sense of anger. It was working and his anger flared, and he flexed his claws dangerously. He imagined the cold optics that watched him die, and he snarled.

"You fraggin' killed me!"

Starscream slashed at the face with a flurry of swift multiple blows.

"You took away my life!"

He kicked and threw any blow that he hoped would bring pain. The face became Skylynx, then Darksteel.

"But you didn't care! You liked the blood on your claws you fraggin' beasts!"

The narrower Predacon face of Ripclaw appeared before him. Starscream stopped and glared into the bright yellow optics.

"But you, you can just go rot in the pit," he growled.

He raised his claws to swipe, and they lashed forward. They stopped within inches of the imagined Predacon's optics.

Starscream was gasping heavily, his way of calming himself. The image slowly faded back into metal slabs free of any marks.

He transformed and flew over the Sea of Rust. The sounds of construction dimmed behind him. Now he soared over an expanse of busted cities, and the only sound he heard was that of his own turbine. But it was a steady noise, it made the silence more obvious.

Flying had become solo thing for him over the years. It had become a lonely thing, as throughout the years flying was only for training or attacking with vehicons under his command. But they were just flyers, not true seekers. It wasn't in their protoforms, or personality. It had been told to him before that seeker personalities were stronger than normal. Their character more outgoing.

Maybe it was the little things like this that made him feel detached. When having an armada of silver and more highly trained eradicons to his own disposal brought no satisfaction. He had deemed them his seeker armada, but he knew that they could never be accustomed to those standards.

His original fleet used to be a large part of his life. They were the most elite compared to the others, and Megatron had set them to the most dangerous of tasks together earlier in the war. They always came back. Until…

Yes, until the day when the guardian arose. He remembered the day like it was yesterday.

Rubble was falling off the buildings, crushing some Decepticons as buildings collapsed. The ground- bound Decepticons were becoming trapped, but the seekers were staring at him, and he was peering up at the sky.

Megatron got him doing this, and had growled, " Starscream. If you fly out of here thinking that you leave me to my death, know one thing."

"What's that?" He had responded.

"If I am not dead, then you will be. But," Megatron said. " If you fly out of here on a mission I choose for you, that would be a different situation, and might entitle you to mercy."

"And dark energon, yes?" Back then, many of the Decepticons had had an addiction to the powerful substance.

"If your mission succeeds, we will have all the dark energon any of us could ever want. Do not fail Starscream. Bring Omega Surprime down or die trying."

His six seekers had survived the avalanche to jet off on a suicide mission. There was Skywarp, Hotlink, Slipstream, Thundercracker, Nacelle and Bitstream. The ones who had always been with him on missions all went in, but by the time they had somehow against all felled the giant, only he, Skywarp, Thundercracker and Slipstream had survived. In the battle the giant had fired many missiles, and even three of the most powerful seekers were blown to pieces or were fired out of the sky .But there was to be no time for remorse as a battle raged after between the two factions.

But the fact remained that the war had taken out everyone he had cared about. And every seeker that had partaken in that mission was now dead.

For a long moment Starscream wanted nothing more than to be flying alongside his Air Commanders at that moment. But this reverie was broken when suddenly a tall, scorched building appeared before him. He panicked without considering that he might have gone through the building. He swerved away before hitting it. But the move was to wild, and when he flipped he unintentionally transformed into his bipedal form. His body hit the street hard, and he bounced and rolled a couple of times before landing hardly on his front.

He propped himself up on his arms, coughed, then stood up. That wasn't his most graceful landing. But at least his frame wasn't dirtied or gashed by sharp metal or rock. He stretched out his back or looked around.

A bleeding sunset illuminated the cliff and city of Vos.

Starscream froze in realization that his thoughts had brought him back to there. He whipped around, fearing that the army of creatures would be waiting for him. They might have been peeking or hiding in the holed buildings or behind corners. But it was bright out still, and he saw no purple eyed beasts prowling with cracking wrists or moaning corpses.

But the place still emitted a foreboding darkness and Starscream wanted to leave. He tried thinking of the Nemesis, but when he opened his optics he was still there. It was like the night, when the ability had been stripped from him. Just as well he went to transform.

The only problem was that his wings clicked, and nothing happened. Like he no longer had a T-cog, and he was grounded…

He was shivering in fright, and glancing around in every direction rapidly. Stars began to prick the sky, and the shadows grew longer. The night would soon fall upon him, his defenseless figure at the mercy of the creatures.

The breeze was cool, and this omen made his form freeze in terror. But he broke out of this and went to walk through the streets, not sure where to go, or which way was safest, but he only wanted to get out of the city.

The city was coloured red, and he walked even faster, trying to keep ahead of the lengthening shadows. But he could only walk so fast, but he was afraid to run because it might attract unwanted attention.

The red was darkening. The corners pitch black, he rushed by them as he feared creatures watching him there. The wind picked up, sounding sharper. Or…

He paused listening. Was he hearing… yes he was becoming dreadfully sure of it now. Whispering.

He looked behind him, but the voices seemed to come from all around him. He turned back around, and stood perplexed.

Like a mirage, the shadows in front of him changed. Shadows, from those of buildings or piles of rubble merged together into one, line in front of him on the street. Slowly, black figures rose from those shadows, bending upwards, taller, taller until larger than himself was each of them. Heads looked up at him with glowing purple eyes, and faces with grisly jaws. Long arms that ended in not hands or claws but in what appeared as scythes, hunched backs and pouncing, sinewy back legs.

He turned backwards, but another line of shadow beasts blocked the end of the street. They extended long, feet forward slowly but a fluid movement with no interruption. Starscream tried to transform again, but his wings snapped and nothing happened. He transformed his arms into blasters, hoping these creatures could be affected by firepower. He shot red plasma bolts and them, whimpering when the creatures absorbs the attacks and continued coming forward.

Scythe arms reached out towards him, finally he yelped and leapt upward at a building, barely avoiding the blade that swing at him. He almost lost his grip on the ruined wall and fell into the crowd of creatures below. He began climbing quickly, trying to use the broken edges as holds on the smooth metal building. He crawled into a hole, tumbling onto a higher floor level. He leapt to his feet and peered at the hole.

The creatures were using their sharp limbs to climb upward toward him. He let out a scream and started running across the room to exit from the hole on the another side. He clicked his wings, still not transforming, still not teleporting. He froze at the hole and the long drop down. But he turned back and saw the creatures coming through the hole, and now were skipping rapidly toward him. He leapt from the hole and started plummeting to the ground.

He didn't realize how high he had climbed. He clicked his wings, failing. The ground approaching rapidly. Click, click-

Then suddenly his body flipped and adjusted, and his wings locked into place. The engine roared and he flew screeching through the air, gaining the altitude and distance that separated him from the shadow creatures.

He was flying back towards the Nemesis. But when he finally saw the stationed warship in the distance, he also noticed the ominous purple glow around it. There were so many creatures crossing the Hydrax plateau that he could hear a multitude of metal clicking and moans of stumbling dead. They had finally caught up with him.

When he ripped across the sky over them, he saw each pair of cold optics follow his form. He wanted to sob out when they turned around and began their slow pursuit of him, but the shock of the night's events had choked him.

It was because of his fear of the ground that he spent the rest of the night flying, appreciating each second that brought with it the prospect of dawn and light.


	9. Chapter 9

He flopped on a street in Kaon when it was no longer dark. Now he was free to gasp heavily and try to control his overwhelming fear. He lay of his front, wings pulled down as far as they could, and quivered. Then he sat up suddenly, grasped his helm and let out a very long and loud scream that had been building up for a while.

He could never go back to Vos or his gravesite. It was there all creatures appeared at night, then embarked on a journey to track him down. He mustn't even think about it, as in the day he would end up there. And once he was there, he couldn't escape or defend himself. It was a complete and horrible nightmare.

"Why me?" Was all he could say. He clutched himself and continued to suffer through shock.

He didn't even hear him approach. When a hand was carefully placed on his shoulder did he gasp in surprise.

"Whoa whoa, easy 'scream. It's just me," Cliffjumper went to sit beside him. "Man, you really look like someone dragged you to the pit and back, what happened?"

"What you said basically describes it all," Starscream shuddered, "How did you find me?"

"I only had to think about you to teleport to your location," he explained. " I wanted to see if you have thought about anything I told you about yesterday."

"I've been a little preoccupied lately," he whispered. "I didn't really get the chance."

His wings were returning to their more natural position now that there was a calm voice there to steady him. But he still had his arms wrapped around his small frame to try and contain the shivering.

"Maybe we could discuss it now," Cliffjumper offered. "Talking might help you. But you can start by explaining what happened last night. I'm curious."

"I've told you before, but I had gotten the impression that you didn't quite fully believe me," Starscream said. " But they are real, and now there are these creatures that appear from the shadows… and again I feel compelled to add that there is nothing I can do to harm them."

"But you can just fly away, can't you?" Cliffjumper grinned. "Or better, teleport?"

" Haven't you noticed? At night teleporting is nearly impossible. And last time I wasn't able to transform while being pursued by those beasts! Every night I stay out it gets harder and harder to escape them. Not it mention that they have followed me all the way to the Hydrax plateau!"He hissed.

"What do you mean you can't teleport at night, or transform for that matter? I have no problem, so why is the time affecting you?" Cliffjumper asked.

"I don't know. Probably among the same reasons that the beasts are so eager to put a complete end to me and not you!"

"Maybe there is a logical explanation. Some kind of reason…"

"What reason could they possible have? I have done nothing to them! And yet they pursue me!" Starscream said.

Then, the question that Cliffjumper was saving for the seeker on the next encounter he saw him,"then what do you think were the Predacons' reasons for killing you?"

Starscreams optics suddenly sparked with anger, and he whirled and stared Cliffjumper down."How dare you tell me that they had a legitimate reason for eviscerating me? " He snarled.

"Because there are reasons," Cliffjumper said calmly. "I know because I saw those reasons develop over time."

"And what would they be?" he hissed.

"I can't tell you. This is something you need to learn on your own."

"If you are referring to how I treated them, then I find that reason inadequate!" He growled. "Even if I shocked them, or kicked them, they always got back at me! They had no right to kill me over that!"

"It's perspective Starscream. But so far you still only see out of one. If you learn to understand the other perspectives, then you will realize that you have understood it the whole time but didn't even know it. "

" You sound like the Prime," he growled. " Do you even understand what you are saying?"

Cliffjumper sighed. "I wasn't sure whether this would be a good idea or not at first, but now I know it is necessary. Starscream, I want to show you something."

Before the seeker even responded, he grabbed his wing. A blur, and then they appeared in the interior of the Nemesis.

"What is the meaning of this?" Starscream demanded. "Why are we here we I specifically told you-

"Just wait. I know they will be here soon."

"What? Did you bring me here so those creatures could-

"Why is everything about revenge with you?" Cliffjumper sighed. " Don't you know-

Then suddenly, outside the warship there was a loud screech and other growls that followed it.

"Well will you look at. They're here," Cliffjumper said.

Cliffjumper lead Starscream to the top of the Nemesis where the Autobots met the Predacons. Ultra Magnus, acting as the leader of the Autobots since Optimus's demise, went forward to greet Predaking.

"Where in your glitched processor told you that bringing me here was ever a good idea?" Starscream hissed. "I thought made my feelings clear!"

But Cliffjumper ignored him and walked up ahead, and Starscream indignantly followed him.

"Salutations, Predaking," Ultra Magnus said. "We are most glad that you have accepted our offer."

"But of course it would be a pleasure to help rebuild the cities," Predaking said. "We would just as well want to better our home planet."

"That fraggin'- Cliffjumper silenced him.

"We had hoped you would feel this way. It is a great asset to have more physical power among us for this task," Ultra Magnus assured the Predacons of their decision with a hint of a compliment well received by Predaking.

"And we shall gladly give it," Predaking smirked. "We can start right away, in this so called Sea of Rust."

"The others have already left, so you can go with there with me," Ultra Magnus added.

Predaking nodded slowly, and moved forward as Ultra Magnus began to leave. But then, the thing Cliffjumper knew would be brought up here, happened. Knockout, who still had mixed-feelings, couldn't help himself from speaking out the question that he wanted to hear the answer out loud.

"Why kill Starscream though?" Knockout said.

The four Predacons stopped in their tracks. Predaking whirled around and glared down at Knockout.

"What was that?" He almost spat.

Knockout faltered under the glare, but Ultra Magnus knew that this needed to be covered before they could move on. "What he means to saw is, why were you the first to spill blood on this planet, when it was Opitimus's own wish that this not happen?" He said.

The other Autobots on the deck, this including Arcee, Smokescreen and Bumblee glanced at each other. It was a well said statement. And they themselves were slightly curious upon the subject as well.

"I am sure you all well-know the reason," Predaking started. "He had treated us all harshly, with words or by blows. He tried to openly humiliate us, and this was before I knew of my ability to speak. It was torturous, for I could not express my feelings or speak up for myself to someone else. I was not allowed to harm him, but I had to endure the disgrace that he inflicted upon me. He tried to break us all, treating us like we were unworthy of life, and that we were inferior to him."

"He needed to pay," Skylynx smirked. "The world is better off without him causing anyone else anymore problems."

"And I'm sure he has caused much too many grievances for you all as well," Predaking concluded. "Now if we may continue on with the task at hand ….?"

Ultra Magnus nodded deeply , but lead them back into the interior of the Nemesis where they would be transferred to the location via groundbridge. Knockout was staring after them dumbly, so it was Smokescreen who led him by the shoulders to follow the back of the exiting crowd.

Starscream had his wings flared tautly the entire time. Cliffjumper watched him remain rigid even after everyone had left. The he spoke, "do you see now?" He said. "I brought you here because I knew this would happen."

"And you thought I needed this?" Starscream's voice was low. Cliffjumper couldn't tell whether he was angry, in shock or … he didn't know. His eyes were blank and impossible to read. If his wings hadn't been so stiff, then it would have been a lot easier to read his emotions.

"But how do you feel about this now?" Cliffjumper said.

After a moment he replied,"give me some time to think about it," he drawled, then turning away and walking into the Nemesis.

But Cliffjumper knew better at this point not to follow him.

He was alone in the halls, but he welcomed the silence. It wasn't that he was proving a point by storming away from Cliffjumper. He was legitimately trying to sort out his thoughts.

It was like being empty inside. He was trying hard to figure out if he was angry, or depressed. But even if he walked stiffly and had his hands into fists, he couldn't grab a hold off of any feeling. But did he want to be angry? He tried asking himself this. Should he be angry? Now there was a question.

In no way could he say to himself that what the Predacons said wasn't true. He had in fact done all the things they stated. He did treat them with no respect, and at times he went out of his way to demote them. He hated their species, and wanted them to know that he was better than they were, even if they were physically larger.

But back then he also had thought they were mindless brutes. No one, not even Shockwave, knew that Predaking could transform! He seemed just like an animal without reason, following directions and destroying everything in sight. When Megatron told him to mind the beast, he from the start referred to physical methods to get the Predacon's obedience. The same with the other two as well when they were created, Skylynx and Darksteel.

It all had caught up with him in the end though. But still did he not want to admit, even to himself, that he deserved it. But, Predaking had attacked and always got back at him regardless, so how much was there really left to settle?

Yet although he detested this, he was understanding why Skylynx and Darksteel would have wanted revenge. It was often that he shocked them with the prod and berated them with harsh words. But couldn't they have just settled their scores with him that way? By physical pain and beating him into scrap?

They might of just killed him, but no. They made his death long and painful. They ripped him, biting and slashing with their claws but not in the manner for killing him straight away. So, he might of survived if they had stopped their had taken him to the med bay. But they continued, by smashing his broken body on the throne and tossing him on the ground repeatedly, so that he felt his internals being damaged. Then Predaking bit into his abdomen, tearing everything out. Knowing that it would be the last thing he would have to do.

It wasn't pretty, but it not take long after that. At that point he remembered not being able to Feel anything at that point because of the extreme loss of energon. But his optics were still open, and he saw the Predacons standing across the room, smirking as the world for him darkened.

But of course they had reasons to do all that, didn't they?


	10. Chapter 10

He was now deeper into the warship, and here there were no vehicons in sight. Well, if it was like the time were the Decepticons were under Megatron's rule, then they would have been basically overrunning the place. Everything was different now, and so many were out working or given the chance to explore and do their own thing. Most worked though, as that had been the entirety of their lives, so they weren't used to doing anything else.

The silence was broken by another lonely pair of footsteps. But they were not of a dragging shuffle but of a steady pace, so Starscream did not fear an attack from any undead creatures.

Around the corner where the sound was being produced arrived Knockout. His shiny red paint obvious against the normal gray of the Nemesis. He was muttering to himself, but he appeared to be sure on his direction. If anything, he was going to one of the storage rooms to get something.

Starscream had stopped and watched him start walking down the long hall toward him. But Knockout didn't even notice anything, and was staring blankly at nothing in particular.

Then around the corner came another figure. But the end of the hall was darker, so there was a moment in which Starscream was confused, trying to recognize features to which bot he saw. But the long black legs that crept forward made the realization all too sudden.

It was only one shadow creature. Black spikes were perked and running down its spine, and its body was hunched forward as it slowly stalked toward him. Scythed arms tucked in, and glowing optics staring straight ahead.

Starscream flashed a glance behind him, making sure that another wasn't stealing up on him. Luckily there wasn't, so he wasn't trapped between any.

When the creature turned its head slightly, he could make out the crooked, outward facing fangs that let out a low, long breath. Its pace remained slow even as Starscream slowly took a step back, and it did not come bolting across the room. Instead it continued at a pace that was just gaining slowly over Knockout's.

Even with the large creature barely breathing eerily behind him, Knockout did not see it. Starscream became confused and dumbfounded, for the creature extended out a bladed arm towards the muttering Knockout. Reaching out.

For second Starscream didn't know what to do, for he was completely unsure if the creature was truly attempting to do what surely must have been impossible. But its viscous intent was evident, and suddenly Starscream feared for Knockout. He couldn't help but shout out at Knockout, warning him of what was behind him.

As he continued without pause, Starscream bean racing towards the mech. And then, Starscream's fears were confirmed when suddenly Knockout's muttering was cut off by a yelp of pain. He jumped forward, clasping an arm that showed no wound.

The creature's arm reached forward again to cut him, but then it stopped as Starscream skidded to a stop before Knockout, not too far from it . It locked optics with him, then opened its large jaws and slowly let out a rumbling hiss. It lowered, bunching on its springy legs. Before it lunged at him though, Knockout shuffled through Starscream. Starscream saw red for just a second, but when he passed, there was no creature in sight.

Starscream turned back to Knockout who was groaning through clenched teeth. Knockout released his grip to check on the arm, but was amazed that there was no mark. It was then he turned on his heels and walked through Starscream again, going back the way he came. Starscream followed him, amazed and concerned.

Starscream figured out that he was heading to the med room, to probably try and find out what happened at any rate. He might have run an interior check on himself, but Ratchet met him as he was leaving by the entrance.

"What happened?" Ratchet asked incredulous.

"I have absolutely no idea," he gasped. "But it feels like someone cut my arm with a knife!"

"What? Show me."

Knckout held out the arm that was injured, and Ratchet peered closer.

"Well, there's a small scratch," he huffed. "So please don't tell me that is what pains you."

"What? But that can't be it, that wouldn't give me this much pain!"

"Perhaps you are exaggerating your wound then," Ratchet said. "As it has disturbed your finish."

He continued his way, leaving Knockout to grimace as another wave of pain hit him. Knockout continued into the med bay, but then seemed to think better about the scan, and instead grabbing a buffer. He began fixing the blemish, but did not experience any extra pain when the buffer went over the cut.

But Knockout could not of been as concerned as Starscream was at that moment. Many questions arising. How did the beast make physical contain with Knockout in the first place? And why did it? Starscream thought the creature was going to go for him, but in truth it had been stalking Knockout. It harmed him, and even though it had only scratched his arm, what would have happened if it stabbed him in a fatal spot?

Starscream actually feared for Knockout and everyone else. That creature could hurt them, and was apparently hunting them now. But in no way could they see it coming.

Starscream knew that it was crucial that he figure out how to kill these creatures. If he could not, then he needed to figure out how to influence the physical world or communicate with someone.

Either way, something had to be done or they were all screwed over.

Starscream dreaded what they would have to face at night. Straight away thought of Cliffjumper to pass the news. After explaining the story, he finsished with, "we have to figure out something, or we' will all perish!"

"So maybe you're not crazy," Cliffjumper said. "But still, I have no idea on how to fight something that you just can't hurt."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Starscream said sarcastically. "Do nothing?"

"It's not that we're choosing to do nothing, but there's nothing we can do."

"Well aren't you the helpful one," he responded. "Fine. If you're so keen on it, then I will be the one to figure something out. Don't worry yourself too much about it."

Now it was Starscream's turn to disappear. He returned back to the control room of the Nemesis, where some of the Autobots were on monitor duty. He thought about trying to make contact with the technology, perhaps it would be better at intercepting signals from other 'dimensions.' It had been one of the few things he influenced during his time…

Holy Primus he had completely forgotten. The thing he had done during his panic, he never realized because of the shock at that time. But back in Vos, when he was pursued by the shadow creatures and was unable to teleport or transform, he had leapt up and grabbed the wall. A wall was something he could walk through, but never touch. Yet in his desperation he had climbed it.

Perhaps he could only accomplish this feat in cases of extreme fear. Or at times when he felt that touching that thing was the only way to… save him maybe? He lain on the berth, probably because the only solution to not dying was to end up in the med room. That is to say, the only way from escaping sure death from those creatures was to climb away.

Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe if the creatures attacked one of them again, he could grab something, or do something.

But then maybe there was another way. He had already tried anger, but it didn't work. If something else worked him up, made him feel a strong emotion, he would try again. For now …

He went up to a computer, the one whom Bumblebee was working at. Then, right beside Bumblebee's deaf audio, he cleared his throat, then screamed. The desired effort occurred, and the screen went to static for a moment then went back to normal. The computer buzzed loudly, and the Autobots were startled and looked at Bumblebee.

"What was that?" Arcee inquired.

"I don't know, it just did that," the mech responded incredulous.

"Run a virus scan then," Arcee suggested.

Just as Starscream saw him typing into the commands, he got another idea. As the machine was scanning for problems, he thrust his hand into it, hoping for a reaction. The bar to completion was loading, when suddenly it froze and the computer began making a concerning groaning sound. The tab was glitching, bouncing around the screen, flashing. Starscream was grinning with joy, as error messages popped up on the screen one over the other and the other.

He took out his hand and stepped to the side so he could see the astonished faces of the Autobots. It was interesting, but it was not a way to communicate with them. It caught their attention though.

Technology was probably able to pick up the different frequencies, so maybe that's why it was reacting to him. Maybe not because he could touch it but because he had a frequency that overloaded it.

But he let his joy over his small success diminish as he remembered the foreboding threat over them all. He flashed to where Knockout was to check on him.

The mark on his arm was gone now, and he didn't seem to be hurt anymore. He wasn't alone anymore, but was talking to Smokescreen in the storage room. Looking around, no strange creatures could be seen, which was a relief. But that also made him anxious, for he would have to check in on everything all the time. This meant that there might be a time he wasn't around…

It was at the construction site where he thought he saw the first creature. It the corner of his eye, he saw a tall, dark figure disappear behind a building. Quietly he went in the same direction, trying to be brave but finding it harder as he got closer to the place it disappeared. He peeked around the corner, and just saw the figure briefing before it walked through a building.

Starscream continued following it. He was apprehensive, but feeling a strong sense of determination. He was unconsciously becoming arrogant, feeling like he could take one of the creatures somehow. But arrogance was something that was always a problem with him throughout his life.

He went to burst into the building but gave out a sudden gasp of pain when he collided harshly against the wall. He fell down of his back, stunned. His face and hands throbbing where he bashed them. He sat up quickly though, awed at what just happened. He went up to the wall, poking at the solid surface. Rubbing his hand on the surface to make sure that what was happening was legit.

Excited, he reached down to the ground, and grasped a piece of metal. He picked it up, squeezing and bending the metal in his palm. Then he threw it, at the wall, and it bounced off with a clink. He smiled, feeling as though he could handle anything coming his way now.

His theory was correct, and that has that he could touch or move physical things whenever he was experiencing very strong feelings, but not icluding anger oddly. He ran over and kicked the metal, sending it flying. Perfect.

"You creatures can't harm me anymore," he smirked. " I'm ready for you!"

No one answered his challenge. But he was ever so eager, so he went back to the construction site. Clawing metal? He would of thought that too easy now! He couldn't wait to show the Autobots what he could do! He would get them to know what was happening to him, he would most definitely do something.

But then a better idea snuck into his mind. A cruel, darker idea. The Predacons… he smiled deviously. He could do something to them… his optics glinted dangerously. He could probably touch them, and hurt them with his bare hands, but they could do nothing about it. They couldn't see him or touch him.

Revenge was ever so sweet, he thought.

He jetted away before he saw the dark figure came back. But the figure saw Starscream,and the dark glint that had been in his eye, and watched him fly away. Then, after a moment, the dark being lifted into the air and followed in his wake.


	11. Chapter 11

Darksteel was the first Predacon he saw. He was carrying a large sheet of metal, high up on a platform. The most perfect place for an accident.

Starscream landed in front of him, and his claws flexed in anticipation in what he was going to do. The figure knew what was going to happen, but was too far away to interject. Starscream, testing his abilities, swiped at Darksteel's arm.

The reaction was satisfying. He yelped because of the sudden attack, dropping the metal on his foot. Darksteel shouted again, then began muttering swears under his breath. A few vehicons turned their heads, wondering what happened.

Darksteel coughed and quickly grabbed a good hold of the metal, trying to regain his composure. Everyone went back to work, none seeing the streams of energon leaking from Darksteel' s arm.

What might of happened if he wasn't interrupted, one could say it would have been much more cruel. And maybe he would have lived a horrible, dark and beast-filled afterlife, never satisfying his rage if someone allows him to attack Darksteel even more viscously. He was preparing the leap that would have enabled him to claw Darksteel's eyes, when suddenly a whining engine caught his attention.

Its familiarity shocked him, so he stood up and whirled around. Was that… it was.

He transformed and rose up, tall and straight. Then walked silently toward Darksteel.

Or so he had thought. He stopped in front of Starscream, and breezed his digits over his arm. But the touch was there, and that was all he needed to do to pass the message.

"By Primus," he breathed. "Soundwave, you…"

The mech nodded slowly, but even if his visor covered his face Starscream could tell his emotion by the way he performed the action. It was sadness.

"No one knew what happened to you," Starscream said, his attention now fully on Soundwave. "You disappeared."

His screen flickered to life, and Soundwave began playing what had happened to him the day the Autobots stormed the warship.

He was being pulled by two groundbridges, then suddenly, they closed. Through Soundwave's point of view, he saw his fingers slid through the form of the human in armour. Starscream thought then he was dead, but the human left, saying words that he didn't understand at first, "enjoy the shadowzone dude."

But then he saw Soundwave turning around confusedly. He felt the objects and walls, and they were solid. Then Starscream's optics widened. Soundwave hadn't died then, but he was trapped in another dimension.

A time lapse occurred, and on the screen Soundwave popped up two bars representing the energon reserves left in both him and Laserbeak. As videos fast-forwarded, and he watched Soundwave pacing around, the bars decreased. In horror, the time kept going forward until the levels reached a low point in which they began flashing dangerously. The video was still going, but the visual stayed the same. Soundwave was sitting, too weak to stand.

Suddenly there was a beep as the energon meter on Laserbeak went empty. The visual showed Soundwave sit up quickly and catch Laserbeak when he fell off his chest. Approximately another cycle passed, the whole time Soundwave holding Laserbeak's dead body in his hands, occasionally stroking the metal of his wings. Then the movements slowed, and then went still, a hand still on the minicon. The bar beeped, and the recording cut to blackness.

"I had no idea," he whispered. "No one did. The humans- I don't think they told…"

Starscream then realized that Laserbeak was not in Soundwave's torso. He blinked slowly, then said to Soundwave sincerely.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Soundwave did not respond. It was because he made no movement signaled his sorrow.

Starscream forgot his desire to harm. Now that he heard, or rather saw what happened to Soundwave, it was hard to feel angry for himself. Maybe he had changed somewhat, he thought to himself, for he truly felt saddened and sorry for him. The way he died took too long, and it was painful to think about.

Soundwave knew that there was nothing he could have done, there was no way he could have refuelled. There was no way out for him either. Those fraggin' humans had no idea what happened to him after, how much he suffered.

He might have committed suicide, and Starscream knew he would have if Laser beak wasn't there. But he also wouldn't allow himself to kill Laserbeak and himself as well. Even if it would have ended their suffering, the silent mech couldn't follow through with the idea.

"You've been here longer than I have," Starscream said. "No one has seen you."

To that, Soundwave cocked his head quizzically. Then Starscream realized.

"We aren't the only ones," he said. "I can tell you that I have already met Cliffjumper."

Soundwave nodded. Starscream knew how to interpret this.

"Think about him, and then you will be there."

When Soundwave disappeared, Starscream followed suit. But when he opened his optics, Soundwave and Cliffjumper were nowhere to be seen. He must of sidetracked himself, as suddenly he `was in another city, where new construction was just commencing. There was Predaking.

Well wasn't that something. Even when Starscream thought he was concerned for Soundwave, his sub-conscious was still focused on revenge. But surely his emotions were too jumbled to be able to form enough energy to pick something up…

His hand went through the wall he touched, so he felt frustrated that he was correct. Frag, and the brute was right there! He was welding materials to a wall with a torch, so Starscream seethed that he had missed the perfect opportunity to inflict some serious pain.

As he was trying to build up a feeling, he heard the dreadful clicking that continued to haunt him. He jetted away before he even saw the predators, hoping that he could leave them to that fraggin' Predacon. If he couldn't do anything, he sure as well hoped that they would do something.

When he tried teleporting, he was absolutely amazed that it worked. But as it turned out, his thoughts returned to that of Soundwave and Cliffjumper. He saw the red mech ahead down a destroyed street, but Soundwave was not there beside him.

Starscream called out to him.

" You've seen Soundwave already, I presume?"

Cliffjumper stood silently, his back to him.

Starscream, confused walked up to him.

"I asked you a question, you know."

"I heard. Yes, I've met him," he said.

"Then he showed you what happened, I presume?" Starscream asked.

"Among other things," he said bluntly. "With Darksteel."

"An incredible feat, I must admit, "Starscream grinned openly. " I've managed to-

"You hurt him."

"Of course I did!"

Starscream was behind Cliffjumper, who still had his back to him. Suddenly, Cliffjumper's voice went low and quiet.

"You know nothing about revenge, 'scream."

It was so random that Starscream felt the fist collide with his face before he saw it. He stumbled backwards, but caught his balance before falling.

"What the-

Cliffjumper was already charging at him with viscous optics. A blow connected to his stomach, and Starscream barely dodged another to his head. He leapt back to get distance from the fury of blows. Cliffjumper glared and transformed his arms into blaster guns.

Starscream stared in surprise, but moved with the necessary swiftness that saved him from being injured from the blasts that scorched the spot where he just was. The gun followed his path, so Starscream suddenly leapt into the air, transformed and sped at Cliffjumper. They collided and Cliffjumper went flying and fell hard on his back.

Unfortunately Starscream crashed near him, so Cliffjumper grabbed his ankle as he transformed. The guns were away, so Cliffjumper dragged him into a violent tussle on the ground.

Cliffjumper hit him hardly and Starscream coughed in mid gasp. Then quick as a flash he slashed his claws across Cliffjumper's chest and he grunted in pain. But the fists kept coming, and Starscream used his arms to shield himself, succeeding in beating them to numbness. When he got the chance though he suddenly struck upwards and created a deep gash across Cliffjumper's face.

Starscream went to jump up, but even with energon leaking into his optics Cliffjumper drove forward and doubled up on his legs. Starscream fell again and Cliffjumper leapt on top of him, barring a gun. But when Cliffjumper tried to pin his arms and to jam the gun against his head Starscream suddenly jerked upward and colliding heads with Cliffjumper.

This surprised and hurt both of them, but it made Cliffjumper loosen his grip for just a second. Starscream's arm flew and ripped a crooked wound on his chest. Before he could do it again Cliffjumper transformed both his hands and interlocked fingers with him. Now they were pushing against each other, Cliffjumper pushing down and Starscream struggling to get him off him.

Both clenching their teeth and putting all their strength against each other, joints popped. One of his arms moved to the side and so Cliffjumper fell on top of him. He slammed some hits on his chest, but Starscream saw his chance and rammed his leg upward, his spiked knee nailing him in the back. Cliffjumper groaned and straightened his back.

Starscream nailed him again and again so Cliffjumper stood up and then dealt out a brutal kick into Starscream's gut as he lunged. His body wrapped around it, and he actually flew back a bit before scrambling to his feet.

They were both standing in an expectant fighting stance, both dripping blood and staring with locked eyes.

"You tricked me," Starscream said. "You made me trust you, and now you're finishing it."

Starscream coughed and a spat out a mouthfull of energon, but some trickled down his chin. Cliffjumper wiped off the excessive blood off his face and blinked it out of his eye.

" I learned from you."

Cliffjumper lunged at him and Starscream sidestepped. But Cliffjumper was still fast enough to grab his wing as he passed. He swung out behind Starscream and tripped his legs. Now Starscream was pinned on his front, but he struggled wildly.

"You actually are trying to do it. To kill me, aren't you?"

"I'm only doing what's necessary."

Starscream went to transform, but Cliffjumper rammed his arm into his back and pulled back his left wing. The movement was meant to stop him, but he was already moving, so something much more painful occurred. There was a loud snap and Starscream shrieked in agony. He scrabbled forward out of Cliffjumper's grip, reared around and punched. Kicked and slashed in a flurry.

Now he was on Cliffjumper, and many wounds opened up on the red mech 's body. Clliffjumper hugged him and they both rolled around the ground. The grip was lost and Starscream rolled a little ways from him.

Both slowly got to their feet, the many wounds catching up with them. Starscream was on one knee, groaning in pain, but not looking back and regarding his wings. But Cliffjumper saw, how one stood up but the other hanging down, hanging by wires and limp.

Cliffjumper stood up and bared his blasters at the kneeling seeker once more. Starscream's optics widened at the action and he broke into a dash to dodge the missiles. So close he could feel the heat. He turned suddenly and ran towards Cliffjumper, miraculously avoiding every shot.

Then just a few meters in front of Cliffjumper he tripped over a pile of rubble that suddenly solidified for only him. He gasped, falling flat on his front at the feet of Cliffjumper. The dust settled. The hot tip of the gun was felt on the back of his head.

"Anything you'd like to get off your chest?" Cliffjumper said.

Cliffjumper allowed Starscream to rise up on one arm. But he still didn't look up at him. He was silent for some long seconds before he sighed.

" I have nothing left to say… so just do it."

"Perfect."

The gun left his body, and the sound of transformation has heard. Starscream looked upwards in surprise, and Cliffjumper has standing and holding out a hand for him. Unsure, he got up by himself, watching Cliffjumper as he leaned his body weight on one leg.

"Why didn't you end me?" He asked.

"That wasn't my intention," he responded. " It was to teach you a lesson."

Starscream twitched the uninjured wing but said nothing. So Cliffjumper continued.

"You thought I wanted revenge, and for all you knew that was it. So what does that mean? " He grinned despite his pain. "Revenge doesn't just hurt the other person, but yourself as well. I started the fight, and look at me."

Deep gashes covered his body, dents and punctures that drenched him in blue.

"I'm no better off then you are."

"That's just as well, but now we are both wounded, and with this wing how do you expect me to be able to fly?" Starscream replied.

"Hold still."

With hesitation, Starscream allowed Cliffjumper behind his back. Hands gripped the limp wing, then suddenly jammed it back into the slot. He hissed in pain with the contact but then moaned when a click was heard and his wing automatically readjusted with the other. He moved both wings down and up, feeling the heavy stiffness in the one. He thought glumly how obscure it was that they could feel pain and bleed as if though they were living.

"What are we to do now?" Starscream said quietly. " After, well-

From an alley Soundwave stepped out from the shadows at that moment. Without a sound he made his way beside the two bleeding mechs.

"Soundwave, you glitch. You set this up with him didn't you?" Starscream said, but not with malice.

Soundwave played a clip of Starscream swiping at Darksteel, then blurred it to a still shot of Cliffjumper thrusting a fist into Starscream's torso while the other hands were interlocked with eachother, him trying to push away Cliffjumper's weight. He was pinned at this point and assuming a face of pain because of the impact.

"Of course you did," he drawled.

He turned his head to spit out another mouth full of blood. Now he noticed how was he was shaking and how much he was swaying. He looked at the orange horizon.

"We should go inside now," he shivered as he felt a chill.

He left without another word. Soundwave turned to Cliffjumper, proposing a question.

" Something about creatures in the dark. Let me fill you in."


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay there are some parts you might be confused on, but these are again, references to the book. No characters in this story will ever be OC, so yeah.**

* * *

For the first time ever, he had a dream during his recharge. A haunting one.

At first it was flashes of white streaks in pitch blackness. Then he realised it was actually a white background interrupted by moving black shapes. Silently they flicked limbs and hands were outlined, and white circles slitting and widening repeatedly.

Then he felt like he was either flying or falling, and everything faded into gray. Suddenly, forms were created for his eyes, and soon he figured out he was standing on a building looking down on a half-built city. The dream didn't show which, but in the streets was fighting. The autobots were fighting the creatures he saw.

Now there was noise. Gun blasts, explosions, yelling, shrieking and moaning. They were spread out, each battling crowds that were beginning to overwhelm. Ripped bodies of corpses and predators bleeding black or purple and stained the dripping blue off of the fighting Autobots.

Shadow creatures morphing their weapons and bodies, some extending mouths and limbs, procuring more spikes, claws and then growing stiff wings out of their backs. The stalked towards the individual fighters, whispering and snapping jaws to distract them from the others that appeared from the walls behind them.

He saw Arcee, a large rip noticeable among her many wounds, slowing down her movements. She used her arm blade to slice a shadow creature out of existence as a terrocon grabbed hold of her shoulders. She tripped back on top of it, and another predator lunged forward and wrapped its teeth around her middle.

Then a yelp of horror erupted a little ways away and a shadow creature grabbed hold of Knockout in long, grasping claws. Its large wings spread out long and sharp, and it pushed off into the air. Wheeljack who had been fighting alongside Ultra Magnus reacted and fired shots at the flying creature. Seizing the opportunity a shadow creature sliced Wheeljack well with a scythed arm and he crumbled. The flying beast rose, grabbed Knockout with its front and back claws, and sunk fangs into Knockout's body. He couldn't scream as the beast bit and tore his insides, and he went limp as the creature raised its blood covered face and stared directly at Starscream.

Starscream was rooted to the spot. The creature flew towards him, dropping Knockout's destroyed body on the edge of the roof. It folded its wings back, and prowled on all fours, springy back legs posed. Starscream wanted to run, but felt heavy and slow, and the reaction was delayed. It pinned him below its hand, teeth brushing his face and neck, scratching slightly.

"I know what you want," a voice whispered.

Starscream turned his head back to look at the creature in confusion. It glared down at him with glinted purple optics, mouth tightly closed.

"Wha-

_Yes._ The thing slitted its eyes at him, but did not open its mouth to speak. _Exactly…_

The confusion dimmed the fear. Under its grip Starscream responded.

"What? What do you mean?"

_You are a very, bad seeker… yes, very bad, very evil…_

The voice was hissing, and quiet.

"And what do you know about me?" Starscream said.

_I have been watching you for a long time._ The creature tightened its grip on him. _You are dangerous, and unpredictable. Changing on a flash, I've seen you kill many._

"I had my reasons," he was surprised to find that he was defending himself.

_Yes, yes of course. You have devious reasons, deadly intentions. You were fun to watch. You laughed when you blew up facilities full of unsuspecting Autobots, you found entertainment in torturing prisoners and you always smiled. Revenge is a dish you always served cold, and you plotted terrible little schemes to inflict pain. You never give up in doing this, as it is in your nature. You never change._

" I believe not," he said back. " For I am learning the faults in my old ways, and learning to regret what I have done."

_Maybe that's what you tell your victim, but you can be honest here. You have other plans for Cilffjumper, horrible and grisly plans. I think you will kill him again. _

"No,I have no desire to do that," Starscream responded.

_Is that what you thought about Skywarp?_

" I…" Starscream dreadfully trailed off.

_Bad, evil little seeker. You are absolutely delightful. I sensed you feeling remorse for theirs deaths, yet you forget that you are responsible for killing one of your own seekers. He looked up to him, and you set him up. Remember the bomb you made him place? _

"Sh-shut up!"

_He got out before the countdown ended. He escaped by teleporting blindly. He fell in front of a sharkticon. It tore him to shreds, that innocent little seeker who only wanted to please you and his betters. It was your fault he died._

"That wasn't me! It-it was-

_ You kill anyone who poses a threat to you. Even those who were close to you._

"I have no intentions to harm anyone anymore!"

_You are a nice liar. We both know you will. You already have. Remember the predacons Remember Knockout? You hurt him just yesterday._

"What? No I didn't, that was one of your beasts!"

_ Oh yes? I don't think so. That beast was you, I am sure._

"No," he hissed. " The ones who hunt me everyday. Whom of which you probably sent to terminate me!"

_I don't send anything._ It snapped its jaws randomly. _But granted, I gave you the power to do just that._

Dread filled Starscream's body. Dryly he said, " even in your container you still have power."

_I am the lord of the undead. Yet Primus still protects you, so I can't use you to do my biding. The shadow jaws parted slightly, like a grin full of jagged fangs. But who can stop you from doing those evil acts without me?_

" You think I will do all that," he grunted out because of the heaviness of the claws upon him over time. " But you said it yourself before, I am unpredictable. And who knows what I will do with the threat of creatures upon myself?"

_Foolish seeker._ The shadow predacon creature rose its claws and let him go. _You know those are projections of your own evil. Look below yourself._

Starscream, slowly stood up and peered over the edge. He no longer saw the creatures, but just the torn, bloody bodies of every Autobot littering the streets. Dead and black-eyed.

_This is the future. _Starscream did not turn to look at the creature. It continued. _You will do this, for you are such a good, evil little seeker._

The world dimmed as he was awakening. In the gray world he finally said, " if that's what you think, Unicron…"

But those words haunted him. Even when he awoke and was walking around the halls of the Nemesis, the words still remained in his mind.

He wasn't that bad, he told himself. He always had reason to his crimes, didn't he? He had no reason to harm anyone except for the Predacons, so he didn't think harming the Autobots would benefit him.

But what did Unicron mean with what happened to Knockout? Starscream saw what happened to the red mech himself, it had been one of those shadow beasts that Unicron had sent, he was sure of it. But the dark lord had insisted that he did not control or create those monsters… he was lying… right?

His wounds had healed quickly overnight, but the thoughts in his mind made him feel off. It concerned him, but soon something of greater interest occurred as he entered into the control room of the warship.

Smokescreen, Bumblebee and Knockout were working but were interrupted by a ping. Suddenly, location cooridnates appeared and an icon appeared on the screen.

"A signal!" Smokescreen exclaimed rather blatantly.

"Is- I don't believe it!" Bumblebee gasped in building excitement.

He quickly hit the commands to open a chat link. The image enlarged and an audio bar appeared, recording the comm. Right away audio came through of other voices in the background, but one voice came in loud and clear.

"Yo, this is Jazz reporting in, responding to open signal calling for refugees."

"Jazz! You are still alive!" Bumble bee grinned.

"What? Is this Bumble bee? When was the last time you were talkin' mech?"

"A long story, but I'd be glad to tell you when you arrive. Who's with you?"

"Some of the old gang and some others we picked up along the way. But beside me I got Silverbolt and Ironhide, and somewhere around here we got uh, Barricade," Jazz replied.

"There are Decepticons onboard?"

Starscream was beside the console now, waiting for his chance. If it worked…

"Sure, why not. Surprisingly, some were just as glad that the war is over. So, where do we meet?"

Now.

"We built a platform for landing ships, I'll send you the coordinates now."

Bumblebee sent a link just before the screen fizzed to static. Sounds glitched, and voices cut off. Despite the static screen though, they could make out Jazz's final words.

"See ya in a few joors, 'bee!" Jazz signed off.

The scene stopped fizzing and the audio saved. Bumblebee appeared full of excitement, but Smokescreen and Knockout were only joyed because of the arrival of refugees, for they didn't personally know them.

"Lets go meet them there," Bumblebee turned around and started leaving.

"But they won't be here for a while yet," Knockout pointed out. "Maybe we should take the time to get rid of this computer virus that's appeared a couple times already."

Yes, yes. Starscream smirked that someone was finally taking note of his actions.

"I'm going out now, you guys meet me later then!" Bumblebee rushed away.

"I've never seen him so excited," Smokescreen said.

"Hmm," Knockout turned and started punching in codes, and brought up recent tabs to look at their encryptions. "Odd, each time the computer glitched it was because of the entire system suffering from… I don't know actually. But it's the same thing every time, but the problem is not within the computer."

"Something outside of the computer is affecting it?"

"The individual frequency, thing- that affected it can be isolated though, like here," Knockout selected the audio for the comm they just had, and brought up the codes with it. Starscream was watching in utter excitement. They were going to do it! They were finally going to know what was happening!

" The disturbance happened at this point in the video," he typed and clicked and the audio played back. Bumblebee's voice played back.

"-a platform for landing ships, I'll send you the coordinates no-

"Whoa, did you hear that?" Smokescreen gasped.

"It was a high pitched and fast noise."

"Try isolating just that sound, but lower the pitch or something."

Knockout did. He had another tab up now just for the sound, and he modified the settings.

"Yes!" Starscream gasped out loud. " You will now know of my presence! You will know about the-

Knockout started the audio, so he went quiet.

"This- the voice was cut for a second. Scream. Not-spark. .. trapped. There- creatures- there was a line of static then- harmed Knockout. Help m-

Well the connection wasn't as good as anticipated, but he still made it through.

Knockout's jaw dropped in bewilderment but Smokescreen stared dumbfounded.

"Did, do you… no way," Smokescreen said.

"But I know that voice," Knockout said. "But he's, well, you know."

"Maybe…" Smokescreen jumped up. " Hey! Yah, maybe that was just a misguided signal! Perhaps the frequency got jambled and we finally just got it now!"

"No,no, no!" Starscream groaned. "I interrupted the link you incompetent fools!"

"Yah, that's probably it," Knockout said with a hint of… disappointment perhaps? " He may of sent more than one signal for all we know… at that time."

"Didn't you listen to anything I said? I'm trying to warn you all from your doom!" He growled in frustration.

"Do you want to catch up with Bumblebee now?" Smokescreen offered.

"Alright."

They were leaving, and this made him absolutely infuriated. He had just figured out he could communicate with them and they didn't even realize it. His hands balled up into fists, and he couldn't help but stomp his foot hard.

"Frag," He growled. "Why does everything always go wrong for me? I mean seriously, why do I even try anymore?"

Then he fell silent in fear. What he had just said could mean that he was giving up on trying good things… and the beginning of what Unicron thought he would become. He flinched. Even with his past to say otherwise, he didn't feel as though he would harm the Autobots. It was like they had become something else to him, not enemies yet not good friends either.

He just didn't know how to save them now.

**Told you it would be kinda weird. The Skywarp thing came from the third book Transformers Prime Retribution. Is a pretty good book, but some might find it boring.**

**REVIEWING MAKES ME SOOOO HAPPY! WANT TO MAKE ME HAPPY AND WRITE MORE? REVIEWS!**


	13. Chapter 13

Starscream was there when the large ship that touched down. All the Autobots, and a large assembly of vehicons gathered in hearing the news of the new arrivals. The great door opened, and a line of Cybertronians, most Autobots but a few former decpticons making their way out.

Jazz who had come out first, tackled Bumblebee in a strong embrace. They laughed good-naturedly. Then came out Silverbolt and Ironhide. Starscream only knew Ironhide by name, but Silverbolt… he never liked that two-bit Autobot seeker. Arcee, Bulkhead, Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus knew them both well, so they greeted them. Other Autobots came out, some of which they didn't know but greeted likewise.

Most of the Decepticons were seekers, and Starscream felt quite content with this. And yes, he realized he had known these seekers, even though they hadn't been in his elite. The Decepticons remained unsure, still trying to stay attentive for any attacks they might be given. They stayed together, but in an attempt to ease them, Knockout walked over with Smokescreen. Starscream followed out of curiosity.

"Hey," Smokescreen started. " Welcome back home!"

The decepticons stared blankly at him, so Knockout spoke out."Oh come on, we're all friends now. He war's over, you have nothing to worry about. Even I used to be a decepticon."

"And you are…?" Smokescreen started.

"Dirge."

"Barricade."

"Hydrostorm."

"Red wing."

"Sunstorm."

"Axer."

Axer! Starscream hadn't recognized him for it had been so long. That bot had been on Junkion, the sneaky bot that worked for the Decepticons, but later turned on them for his own intentions. He wasn't a Decepticon, but no one seemed to notice… he must have tricked them if no one but him knew who he was.

Sunstorm, the gold and grey detailed seeker flicked his wings."So I heard you Autobots finally snuffed Megatron?"

"Wait, they don't know?" Knockout said.

"Know what?" Growled the large Barricade.

"Megatron… okay he died, but he got brought back to life by Unicron, epic battle and now he's on our side," Smokescreen blurted out.

"Where is he then?" Axer said. Only Starscream heard the treachery in his words. That bot was much alike him in the way that no one truly knew his intentions, and he was always plotting.

"Still working on the construction site finishing the Sea of Rust, if you want you can talk to him…" Smokescreen said, semi-awkwardly. "When we take you there to newly built living quarters I mean."

"Perfect," Axer grinned a dark grin.

"Isn't this remarkable?" Cliffjumper suddenly said behind him.

Starscream turned around and saw him and Soundwave coming towards him.

"Autobots and Decepticons all arriving, no guns pulled out. A sight I haven't seen in ages."

Soundwave nodded. The visor faced the former dcepticons, then he bowed his head in seeing Axer.

"Axer, yes," Starscream said. "I see you also remember him."

"Hey, I know that bot too! That two-faced-

Suddenly slow and multiple wing beats sounded behind them and Starscream visibly jumped. Every refugee turned and stepped back in surprise when four giant Predacons landed before them. They transformed right away, but the wary refugees pulled out gun anyway.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Bumblebee stepped out in front of them. "Don't fire! These Predacons are on our side!"

He got some strange looks, and the Autobots lowered their weapons. The Decepticons, cautious, still had their weapons still trained on the four tall figures in front of them.

"Aren't they extinct?" Red Wing hissed.

"We were cloned by Shockwave," Skylynx replied.

"Welcome everyone," Predaking seemed to ignore the hostility. " It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I am Predaking."

He nodded to the others to introduce themselves, and that they did.

"We will not purposely threaten any of you, unless you give us reason to. And so we hope that you all, in turn, aid us in the renewal of our planet."

The Decepticons one by one dropped their weapons, thinking that if they were to be attacked it would have happened by now. Predaking nodded back to his brethren, and they assumed their beast forms. The crowd unintentionally stumbled back again, but the Predacons merely turned around and flew off the way they came.

"Fraggin' hypocrite," Starscream growled.

Soundwave put his servo on Starscream's shoulder to calm him. It was expected Starscream snort and say something among the lines of, "safe me your sympathy, Soundwave." However, the brief gesture surprised Starscream, and only his glaring eyes and his flared wings continued to portray his anger. He said nothing else, and that was enough for Soundwave.

They watched the Autobots organize the newcomers in silence. It was decided that they were all going to go out to the Sea of Rust and take housing there. A groundbridge was opened to avoid the awkwardness of them all getting there via their alt-modes. The group of three arrived at their location by their own way to watch the reactions unfold.

They arrived at the site where the finishing touches were being put of the Sea of Rust. Jaws literally dropped when they saw the upgraded Megatron working up on a platform not too far off. He noticed, so he landed in front of the group, standing tall over them. The Autobots shifted uncomfortably, but were too unsure to draw out their weapons. The Decepticons rushed forward with many questions. Megatron tried his best to give the quickest summary, and claiming his new intentions.

"The Decepticons are no longer," then Megatron ended off with a threat. "And if none of you can't accept that, then I will deal with you personally."

They nodded obediently and blankly. Then Megatron pointed out into the new city.

"Now, I recommend you try the new facilities. When you are all rested, I do hope you will join us in the reconstruction of our home planet."

His departure back to work was a signal for the refugees to be directed into rooms of their own. Soundwave pointed out to them that the entire time Axer had been hiding at the back of the pack and that Megatron had failed to notice him.

They followed everyone, and learned that each refugee was to receive a large room in an apartment for themselves. Rooms that were under good security and had security code doorlocks. Axer, taking a slower pace was one of the last the Autobots lead into the quarters. Even if it was Bumblebee how had taken and recorded his name, it still appeared that his quiet demeanor he was playing was making him easy for everyone in the group to forget him. No one really paid attention or looked at him, and he certainly made no conversation with anyone as well. He peered out of his room, made sure no one was around, then silently closed the door. It was too quiet in his room.

"I do believe that mech will be up to something in no time at all," Starscream said.

"Well, I think there ain't much he could do to cause trouble, so hopefully no one will hear all that much about him from here on," Cliffjumper suggested.

"Hmm," Starscream said.

He walked away from them having nothing better to do. He transformed and flew around, just wanting to have a chance to isolate himself for a while. He was thinking about his communications with Knockout and Smokescreen, and he wasn't sure whether to try again because they might dismiss it as faulty signals again. He was frustrated with this. He had tried so hard to make contact with the other world, he had figured out things that even Cliffjumper, who had been here for so long didn't know. But it was all for nothing, because he failed.

Or maybe his efforts weren't all for nothing. He had figured out how to touch objects, how to make contact with people. He had learned that he could hurt the Predacons. And maybe he might of done that now if the dream he had didn't scare him so much.

And what had that dream meant? Unicron was enjoying reminding him of all the evil and murderous things he did in his life. He assured Starscream that he could be nothing else but evil, and his warning about the future seemed too… Starscream wasn't sure exactly what to call it. Disturbing? Perhaps… maybe he really did want to change. He felt awkward around Cliffjumper, the mech who didn't seem to care about what Starscream did to him in their time of living. But he felt, yes guilty. Now he realized how horrible it was to have one's life taken from them, and he felt guilty because it seemed he had no excusable reason for actually killing Cliffjumper in the first place.

Did that mean Unicron was right then? All he wanted was to make the Predacons suffer, and he thought he would never be able to forgive them. If Cliffjumper was able to do it, did that mean it was true that he would never change? What if his lust for revenge was so large that it would harm even those that he wasn't intending to?

Did that mean…? No. He didn't hurt Knockout. Starscream recalled the memory with its disturbing clarity. The creature that slowly extended springy legs after Knockout, following the oblivious bot silently. The blade arm cut into him, but left the smallest of marks. The purple optics locked with his, and it might of hurt him next. Unicron was a liar, he told himself. He was trying to scare him while setting out more creatures to harm him, and attack the living that had locked him away in that container.

He never knew that he didn't need to be lying down to black out. It just happened, for it was like he blinked and the noon day sun became a bleeding sky in which he still flew through. It was sudden and shocking, but because it was nearing sunset he did not dare land on the ground. He needed to find Cliffjumper and Soundwave, and they were probably still in the new city. He thought about them, and in no time he disappeared and reappeared in what was definitely a new city.

He landed in the destroyed street expecting to see Cliffjumper. Starscream stared around him, then realized his surroundings. He choked in fright and frantically tried to transform or teleport. It was obvious, but Starscream was still shocked when he remained in the same place.

"Frag you Unicron!" He gasped out.

There was a sound not too far off down the street and around the corner. Starscream already started jogging down the street. He was wary of the shadow allies, did something move there? Who knew, for he wasn't keen on checking.

He ran for a few minutes, not sure whether to feel relieved that nothing had attacked him yet. Either nothing was after him, or the more likely possibility that they were all waiting in ambush.

Then, the quiet was over. Starscream skidded to a stop when a crooked shadow of a bot appeared before the accompanying groan. He barely saw the zombie with the outstretched arms start rounding the corner before he started running in the other direction. He zipped past a narrow alley where a single bony beast prowled out with snapping jaws and wrists and claws that clinked metallically. Starscream turned down another street and ran wide-eyed and trembling. He stumbled but kept moving, looking over his shoulder to see if anything was there. Before he looked back at his route he abruptly crashed into something.

He gasped in surprise when he hit the ground on his back. There was a grunt from the other figure, who sat up rubbing his helm.

"Yo what do you think you're doing 'scream?" Cliffjumper said.

Starscream had leapt to his feet, and tried pulling the fallen Cliffjumper up frantically.

"We have to get out of here now!"

"Chill dude, where's the fire?" Cliffjumper was still sitting but was jolted to his knees by Starscream.

"The creatures are coming, we have to-

Starscream suddenly dropped the red arm he was holding and stepped away from him with a frightened expression."Wait, wh-what are you doing here in Vos? You—I told you…"

An assortment of growls and moaning came from around the corner. They were getting closer


	14. Chapter 14

"You knew I was going to look for you, didn't you? You led me here!" Starscream panicked.

Grisly, rusted and white predator faces turned the corner and stared at them with cold, purple eyes. Zombie followed on broken ankles or twisted appendages.

"Run! Run!" Starscream screeched, taking off sprinting. He wasn't completely sure if Cliffjumper was following, but he hoped so. There were so many, parted and black outstretched jaws…

Cliffjumper was running behind him. Starscream knew this now because he was hollering at him. "'Scream stop! Stop running!"

Starscream barely heard him in his panic. Even if he did, he would not have stopped. More creatures were appearing from side allies and streets, and shadows raced down the walls.

Suddenly a zombie fell off a building and crunched in front of him. He stopped promptly. A puddle of black leaked from under the corpse, and pieces had fallen off by the impact. But the head stared up at him and the abnormal fangs spread out and an even louder than average moan erupted from the mouth, and it dragged its broken body quickly toward him, trying to grab a hold. Starscream screamed and almost crashed into Cliffjumper as he raced back down the road.

"Starscream!" Cliffjumper yelled.

A line of shadow creatures formed in front of him. He leapt backwards as one swung a curved scythe arm, and he barely dodged the fast blow that was intended to disembowel him. The creature took one step forward and made another lunge at his neck. Starscream stumbled over a rock, tripping back over the real object because of the strong sense of fear he was experiencing no doubt.

When hands grabbed his wings tightly he screamed. Cliffjumper dragged the struggling seeker away from the creature's reach and back to his feet.

"'Scream, listen to me!" Cliffjumper turned him around to look him directly in the face. "Stop running!"

"I can't! I can't transform, I'm stuck, grounded, oh Primus…"

Beasts of all kinds closed around them. Closer…

"We're dead," he whimpered. "I-I-

Starscream transformed his arms into blasters, turned away from Cliffjumper and tried firing at the advancing line. The red blasts seemingly going through the creatures and not affecting them at all. Starscream returned his arms back to normal and grabbed at Cliffjumper's arm.

"Maybe- maybe," he whispered. "Grab my wings, we can…"

"No. You're not running away anymore."

Starscream was looking hopefully at the sky, so Cliffjumper suddenly tackled him, wrapping his arm around him so that his arms were trapped. Cliffjumper maneuvered himself so he could grab the wrist of his other arm, free a hand to grab Starscream's chin from behind and lift it.

"Just look! Don't you realize what this is?"

"What are you doing? Release me!"

Starscream struggled so Cliffjumper held him tighter in a locked grip. Starscream's wings were sideways and pressing against his frame.

"Don't you recognize him?"

Cliffjumper lowered Starscream's head to look at a half terrocon not too far off. It was rusted and dark, but there was detail that could be traced under the black, sticky energon. Starscream shivered under his grip, and if he had a sparkbeat Cliffjumper would have felt it skip.

"That's Skywarp, Starscream," Cliffjumper whispered.

"No, no it can't be…" Starscream said. "He's dead b-but not…"

The bot they talked about dragged itself closer to them, gasping and groaning. Starscream was trembling, he didn't want to believe it but the details were unmistakably there. Black and purple chipped paint, and ravaged wings that at first appeared like ribbons of bend metal protruding from its back. Half the body was gone, and black guts trailed behind it. Chunks of metal missing and jagged gashes littered the corpse.

"It is," Cliffjumper said. " Keep looking.

Starscream regarded the creatures who were so close, yet had slowed their movement, filling in gaps to escape routes and watching him with glinting optics. He looked at the zombies with outstretched arms. It was hard to see at first, but when he concentrated he could see the details, and the torn wings and wounds to prove it. Seekers with twisted limbs and scorched bodies, some so full of rips and bite marks that they barely held together.

But behind the front line were non seekers that he didn't know about. Black burn marks, shot holes and stab wounds… Starscream gasped in realization.

"The-they're-"Starscream started. "But…"

" It's true. These terrocons are the bots you feel responsible for their deaths. And everything else, I think you know what they are," Cliffjumper said. "Your fear, anger, evil, wish for revenge. You gave them shape, you created them."

"Why can't I control them then? Why can't I hurt them?"

"You tell yourself you can't. But you can. You can make them go away. They aren't real, those terrocons aren't actually who you think they are."

"We need to go! They will-

"It's too late. Only you can fight this 'Scream," Cliffjumper said.

A predator got too close and snapped its jaws at Starscream. He struggled, but Cliffjumper held on to him and took a step back.

"Why do they want to harm me? Why-

Cliffjumper cut him off again. "Stop. Close your optics and calm down."

Starscream did this hesitantly; he was too terrified to do anything else. His eyes were closed, but he couldn't think clearly. He heard the growling a metre in front of his face, the moaning of zombies all round him. He couldn't move, Cliffjumper wouldn't let him even struggle as cold, sharp fangs brushed his face. He was too terrified to look at the predator he knew was there.

He created this. He told himself. I can make it go away. It wants to hurt me, but I made it. It is my fear, anger, lust for revenge…

Cliffjumper felt him stop shaking. He went still, and knew that Starscream finally understood what Cliffjumper wanted him to learn for all this time. The fangs drew back away and the creatures ceased to move. Starscream kept his eyes firmly shut, but Cliffjumper watched. He watched the shadow creatures melt back into the shapes they were originally. The predators and terrocons fading slowly, becoming more transparent until Cliffjumper could see right through them, and then they disappeared entirely. Cliffjumper slowly releashed his grip on Starscream, allowing him to stand freely. He opened his eyes.

The destroyed streets of Vos were clear of all creatures. The beautiful red sunset bathed the city in orange. Long shadows drew out placidly.

"Revenge…It harms me just as much as others. It always has, hasn't it?" Starscream turned to Cliffjumper with clear optics. His wings levelled, he stood tall and unwavering.

"It was never a solution, not for anyone," Cliffjumper said.

"The Predacons…"

"Yes."

Starscream nodded dumbly. He felt clear, but empty. Light but weighed down with, yes regret. He remembered what he had done in his life, and the cruel role he played during the war. His life was about always getting back at others, eliminating threats. But in the process he killed too many, and he killed those who had been with him way back before the war. Like Skywarp. He had been blinded by hate, acting and not realizes the impact he made on the others who were close to the one he harmed. Like Arcee. He hated and mistreated others beyond forgiveness. Like Predaking. Like Skylynx. Like Darksteel.

His life ruled by revenge ended because of revenge. It was like…

"I killed myself."

Somewhere not too far away came the sound of an approaching engine. Light and constant, it was undoubtedly Soundwave who transformed and landed behind them. They turned and looked at him, but Soundwave was already walking quickly toward them, not even curious in a story of what just happened.

Right away he displayed a video of what he had just seen and recorded to Starscream and Cliffjumper. Starscream narrowed his gaze and furrowed his eyebrows. Cliffjumper glaring as well.

There was going to be trouble. Axer was up to something.

Axer was sneaking out of his room as the sun was setting. Everyone was already leaving the construction site, and no one noticed his departure. It was obvious in how he was moving, the way he clung to the walls, used the shadows and walked silently, that he did not want to be seen.

The clip was enough to send all three of them back to the Sea of Rust. They followed behind Axer, who it was now apparent was heading to the stationed Nemesis.

"What do you think he's up to?" Cliffjumper said.

The entrance to the Nemesis was still open, so Axer encountered no issue getting in. However, he continued his pattern of sneaking to avoid the attention of the wandering vehicons. Axer located one standard computer and command station down an empty hall. There was a vehicon minding the station.

The three knew of Axer's past on Cybertron. During the war, Axer had been a well-known bounty hunter. One could say he was neutral, for he worked for any side that requested individual and specific killings. But because this was Axer, he only accepted high paying requests that weren't too impossible to succeed in. Everyone who knew of him though knew that once he took on a task, you wouldn't escape. He was a skilled and silent assassin.

No one saw it coming. It was like he just walked up to the vehicon, but it did not notice until Axer stood right in front of it. Something flicked from his wrist, small and so thin it might have just appeared as a trick of the light. Suddenly the vehicon fell dead onto the console, a wound no larger than a scratch the only evidence that a weapon had pierced him.

He looked around, shoved the body to the floor, then started searching the files. Starscream, Knockout and Cliffjumper saw him open a file containing all information on the layout and map of the Nemesis. Axer scanned through it with grim and determined optics. Then he straightened his back and smiled darkly when he found what he wanted. A map showing the way to Megatron's chamber was on the monitor.

Axer let the tiny weapon flick back into his palm. It gleamed as he turned it to its side, and he stared at it fondly. A thin dagger, with a unique design and haddle. Axer tested the tip of the handle, making sure that the black fluid still dripped from a secret hole at the tip of the blade.

"A poison blade," Starscream said. "You think Axer would dare an assassination attempt on Megatron? There is no way he could be that foolish."

But it did make sense. Axer hated Megatron, after all the bad experiences they had together. And Megatron would be recharging as well, if Axer could override the no-longer-as-secure security lock, even a big guy like Megatron couldn't protect himself from being poisoned in his recharge cycle.

Soundwave pointed back at Axer, who flipped the dagger in his servo before grabbing the shoulder blade of the dead vehicon in one hand. He dragged the body into a dark corner, hidden from view. Soundwave looked at Starscream expectantly.

"I see," Starscream nodded after a pause.

Starscream might not of cared had it not been for the day's experiences. But now he felt that he had to do something and act to stop Axer's plan for revenge. Soundwave was pressuring him as well, the loyalty to their former lord still strong.

Starscream reached out his hand and plunged it into the technology, causing the screen to malfunction. The computer responded with a high pitched buzzing sound that made Axer whirl around and race back to it the keyboard.

"What the frag?" Axer growled.

The medium sized wheeled bot landed a fist on the keyboard. It was annoying and delaying for Axer for sure, but if he couldn't make it stop he could always attempt just cutting the wires. That was why Starscream summoned up a strong sense of concentration so he could carefully press a few keys that set off the ship's alarm system. It was loud in comparison to the previous night silence, blaring and flickering lights.

Axer panicked and started running, confused and wondering what it was he did. His missions never went wrong. There was absolutely no chance that anyone could have spotted him, stealth was one of his specialties! In his unusual carelessness he was spotted by vehicons who yelled and tried to block his path. Axer bowled over one on the left, and sliced another across the gut with the dagger. Lucky of him, there was no time to inject poison, so it recovered and continued chase.

Axer cchanged an arm into a bludgeon and smashed his way through trooper to reach into the outside. He hit the ground on all wheels and sped away in the opposite direction to the rebuilt city. Jet vehicons searched the air, but the assassin had already escaped.

The alarms were shut off and the vehicons reported back to the Autobots what they had seen. Only Smokescreen was able to recongnize the bot they were describing.

"That was Axer, I'm sure it was. That quiet bot at the back of the crowd," Smokescreen said.

Even Megatron was present in the control room, curious on the events that passed.

"Even when the war ends, there are still those who cause trouble," he said.

"But what was he doing on the ship?" Bumblebee put out there.

"We located the documents he opened on one of the computers," a witness vehicon reported. " He was searching the maps of the Nemesis. For what, we are unsure as the alarm must have cut him off."

"But what use would that to for him?" Smokescreen asked those assembled.

"A bot like him," Megatron growled. " Would terminate us all in our recharge."

"So it appears we have an assassin on the planet," Ultra Magnus stated. "Therefore the public should be warned and effort should be taken to apprehend him."

"We can contact the Predacons," Bumblebee suggested, knowing of their ability in tracking and hunting.

"We shall do this immediately. If our theory is true, then he needs to be captured before he can cause harm," Ultra Magnus went to activate the groundbridge. The Predacons never installed a comm. Unit.

"Should we go with them?" Cliffjumper said.

"No," Starscream replied. "We have already done enough."

Soundwave nodded once at Starscream in appreciation of what he did for him.

"What you did though, it was amazing! Completely impossible," Cliffjumper grinned. "I can't believe that you stopped him, even as a dead ghost mech like you!"

"Thanks for the reminder," Starscream snorted.

It was getting later into the night. The day had held many events for Starscream, and he just wanted a break. The threats were all gone, and he no longer had to worry. Without saying much, he excused himself to black out and let the night finish without him. Cliffjumper and Soundwave stayed though. They were there when Axer was captured half way into the night. Axer might not have been so angered and disappointed that they caught him despite his expertise in stealth, if he had he known he had evaded four predacons for the longest, record time.

He was brought in struggling between many claws. He was unharmed, the Predacons had maintained their responsibility in doing so. But even they held marks on their faces, legs and body, for Axer had many weapons hidden within his body. He must have thought he was fighting for his life to even attack all four of them at once. But Axer was caught now, so he was still dragged away by the Autobots. He was thrown into a brig, where he would be questioned about his actions in the morning.

All the while Starscream dreamt again.


	15. Chapter 15

**PLEASE REVIEW IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY !**

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Everything was dark. Starscream stared around, unable to see anything beyond the outline of his own servo. A large pair of purple optics bored into him, not too far away, the owner of them prowled slowly around him in a circle. Starscream heard claws grazing the ground of the dark room, heard the wings fold and the jaws snap once.

_ Do you actually believe you have done good today? _The voice whispered to him like a cool breeze.

"You were wrong," Starscream held his ground against the glare of the creature's eyes. "I can change."

_You are evil, do not pretend you are-_

Starscream felt angered by the beast who continued to pester him, so for the first time Starscream cut it off.

"Who are you to tell me who I am? I am Air Commander Starscream. This I know and knew. I might have made many bad decisions in my life, but I also know regret and depression! I miss my seekers and mourn the loss of the capital in which I once called home. I am not like you, for I lived a life of confused emotions, among friends who perished and the enemies I killed. I am not like you because I lived through the pit and learned."

At the end of his rant the optics lunged forward and Starscream could make out the face in the purple glow. Crooked and blue glittered fangs snapped at the spot where Starscream just was. It glared at him in anger, prowling around him again. It parted its jaws and softly growled between its teeth. The creature's wing brushed the wings of the seeker, but Starscream had yet to lose his bravado.

_ Foolish seeker. You know nothing, you will suffer for your insolence! _

"And what can you do?" Starscream drawled. "You are too powerless to even show your actual face to me!

The large, winged shadow beast growled again and swiped its claws to pin him. Starscream was anticipating the reaction, so he was able to dodge the attack. It the pitch black, he heard the wings flap in frustration and claws scratch the ground.

_Oh, you will see. For there is even more in store for this planet's inhabitants. This isn't over, this I assure you. _

Somewhere in the dark around him, he could hear the screams of Autobots and refugees. But he saw nothing behind the silhouette of the creature.

"You are bluffing," Starscream said. "You are just trying to trick me again."

_You tell me._ The creature made the mouth full of jagged teeth contort into a smirk. Without warning, it dove forward again and caught Starscream mid jump. It bit hard into his abdomen, slamming him into the ground as it started tearing at him the same way he had in the other dream with Knockout.

Starscream calmed himself, holding back the scream and waiting until he imagined he felt no pain. He had more power than Unicron, so he knew that he could take control here. None of this was real.

The creature looked up into his optics with a mouthful of bloody guts in its mouth. Starscream had surprised it in him not screaming in pain or fear. He would not allow the creature that Unicron was using as his avatar to persuade or scare him into fulfilling his evil intentions. The seeker smiled deviously up at him from under the claws and fangs.

"Get fragged," was what he said to the god of the undead.

Starscream woke to a bright morning sun rising over gleaming, new metal buildings.

"I suppose we could," Bulkhead said.

The former Decepticon seekers and Silverbolt grinned to each other.

"Perfect," Dirge smiled.

"Hey, thanks Bulk," Silverbolt patted his shoulder. "You have no idea how thankful every seeker will be for this."

"Well, we are going to rebuild every city eventually, so why not make Vos the next project?" Bulkhead said matter of factly.

Starscream certainly felt content in the decision as well. Vos had lay in ruins for too long. He wanted all evidence of its brutal end covered and fixed. Every seeker there recalled the tall buildings and skies that were busy with speeding jets, and they thought of the future.

Soundwave walked up beside him and caught his attention by pulling on his arm. He pulled up a visual of Axer's locked room, and Starscream understood.

"They are about to start interrogating Axer,"he hmmed. "Fine, fine. Lets go check it out."

Axer was being lead through the halls in stasis cuffs. He was not held at gunpoint, but the foreboding large figure of Megatron behind him was enough to pressure him on. Soundwave and Starscream waited at the end of the hall, watching them walk toward them.

Then, there was a mighty shock that shook the entire ship. Axer fell to his knees and Bumblebee and Arcee stumbled to keep their balance.

They all stood silent and listened. They heard nothing within the thick walls of the Nemesis, but the silence was interrupted by the alarms going off.

"Another attack?" Arcee groaned.

The ship shuddered again. Suddenly Ratchet's voice came in through all the speakers of the Nemesis.

"We have a major situation. We are being attacked by hordes of insecticons infected by the terrocon disease. All units report to fighting positions immediately. I repeat, all units prepare for battle against the infected insecticons. There was a crash and explosion not too far off in the warship. Blaster shot were cut off my surprised shouts of vehicons.

"They've made it inside," Bumblebee said. "We need to go, now!"

A Insecticon burst through the ceiling. It had claws soaked in energon, and it parted jaws so that a long, clawed end energon sucking tube was thrust out. It charged forward, and the three charged to do battle with it. The energon draining device lashed out toward Bumblebee, so Arcee rushed forward to slice it in half with her bladed arm. Megatron shot a large, sizzling hole right through its body. It fell down dead.

Claws stabbed and ripped through the outside wall. Insecticons bored holes and hurried through them toward the bodies they sensed. They all began shooting like mad, and Starscream and Soundwave watched, wishing that they could do something. Off in the corner, no one noticed Axer stand and run away.

Axer made it to the entrance of the Nemesis. Making sure he was safe, he started bashing the cuffs against the wall as hard as he could. The shock hurt him, but eventually it cracked and fell off. He dashed outside and gasped.

The sky was filled with flying and shrieking Insecticons. They were heading into the distance, to the largest attack taking place over the Sea of Rust. Taking the chance, he sped in the opposite direction, away from the battle.

Megatron, Arcee and Bumblebee made their way outside to meet the other Autobots. Up in the sky vehicons were trying their best to hold their own, but more of them died than the Insecticons.

"Autobots! It is paramount that we defend the Sea of Rust!" Ultra Magnus shouted over the noise.

Without hesitation they all sped to the city in no time at all. Megatron rocketed into the sky above the city, blasting Insecticons into pieces and dodging their charging attacks. Vehicons shot into the air from platforms. The refugees exited their rooms.

"What the slag is happening?" Red Wing shrieked.

Suddenly a group of infected insecticons landed heavily in front of them. Their faces opened and the strange energon draining tube lashing out and snapping at the pincher ends.

"Oh frag!" An Autobot yelled.

The first Insecticon lunged and pinned Sunstorm, sinking the energon draining tube into his neck. The gold seeker screamed in shock and agony and struggled crazily. The refugees charged the diseased Insecticons instantly, and they dispatched the one on Sunstorm. Red Wing pried away the teeth and energon oozed from Sunstorm's wound.

He looked around dizzily, failing to get up because of the fatigue. More Insecticons landed around the refugees shrieking and growling.

On the other side of the city, the Predacons had just arrived on scene. Fire blasted through the sky as the Predacons burned the oncoming wave of Insecticons. If anything, it seemed to the onlooker that the Autobots and refugees might have been screwed had it not been for them.

A black helicopter lifted into the air behind the Predacons. They were causing her plan to exterminate all on the planet to fail, and she was not okay with this.

The Predacons did not hear her coming over the sound of the exploding and shrieking Insecticons before them. Skylynx growled to his leader before landing on the ground and racing to fight the Insecticons attacking the vehicons and surrounding the refugees. He tore and ripped them with his claws and teeth, slaughtering them with little problem.

But Airachnid leapt onto the back of the flying Ripclaw. She whipped her head back and growled at the strange femme between her wings. She raised her tail with the large pincher at the end of it and lashed it at the threat.

To the Predacon's surprise, the bot shot out sticky webs that pinned the tail to her body. Ripclaw saw Airachnid smirk, before half her face spread out and a clawed tube struck into her back. She screeched in surprise, and rolled around in the air as an attempt to dislodge her. Airachnid clung tight, draining the energon at such a rapid rate that even the large Predacon began to feel dizzy. Darksteel looked back and growled. He flew at Ripclaw, swiping his claws out to snag the bot between his claws. Airachnid, without interrupting her draining the Predacon, raised her hands and sprayed his optics thickly with the webs. He shrieked and tossed his head about, trying to shake it out. He landed on the ground so he could transform and scoop it away from the optics for his Predacon mode would have only accomplished scratching them out with claws.

He watched in horror as Ripclaw wavered in the air and scrapped against a building, flipping and crashing heavily. He went back into his beast form, racing on all fours to reach his comrade. He, like Skylynx, tore through the thickening crowd of Insecticons. It seemed there was no end to them.

Ratchet and Knockout set up a place to patch up the injured. Right away, the very large Barricade thrust his way into the room carrying the limp Sunstorm.

"The beast drained much from him," he rumbled, placing the seeker on the ground before rushing back out to land powerful blows that dented the skulls of the Insecticons.

Ratchet quickly started injecting energon into the unconscious and scratched Sunstorm. Shrieking came close and Insecticons burst into the room. Knockout shouted and changed his hand into a large saw, rushing forward to slice them open and protect the patients within.

Cliffjumper was there too. He was watching in horror the battle unfold. The ever large army of infected Insecticons slaughter and beat back their forces. He felt terrible because he wanted to fight and help them, but all he could do was watch.

Soundwave zipped out of nowhere and landed beside him. Cliffjumper turned to see the image Soundwave brought up of his visor. Airachnid, a broken face with fangs and the same energon draining tube as the other Insecticons.

"She is controlling them?" Cliffjumper yelled over the noise.

Soundwave nodded slowly. The Cliffjumper groaned in frustration, both wished beyond anything that they could convey this message to the fighters, who probably knew nothing of her presence.

"I wish there was something we could do!" Cliffjumper said. "I mean, we just need to cut off the snake's head right? I wish…"

Then Cliffjumper looked around in surprise. He didn't see him anywhere.

"Wait a second, where's Starscream?"

Megatron and some of the Autobots were battling at the outskirts of the city. Vehicons falling from the sky was an often event, and there was hardly any cover from them and the onslaught of the many Insecticons. They were certainly having a rough time.

Axer had swung around when he thought of the wonderful opportunity he would have for revenge. No one would pay attention or look for him in the midst of battle. All too perfect.

Megatron, despite his thick armor was covered in deep wounds from the claws of the Insecticons and was weary from the long battle with no breaks. He blasted and fought hand to hand with the beasts, burning out their sparks and breaking open their bodies. Arcee and Bumblebee were close to him but not too much, and they were drifting away as they worked as a team.

The Insecticons charging on the ground were driving Megatron into the streets. Axer liked this, and hid among the shadows of the building. The sun was still rising, so there were long ones he could use to conceal himself from the Insecticons viscous eyes. Excellent. Axer snuck closer to the back of Megatron, and he pulled out the long thin dagger that he always carried with him. It was actually more of a disguised needle though, for he designed it himself to inject substances. Revenge was a beautiful thing.

Ripclaw hit a building in her slide across the ground. Airachnid leapt off her as the building toppled and rubble came crashing down. It completely buried her, and it would have killed others, but she was a Predacon. However, she was so weak from the energon loss, and the metals that fell on her wounded her, she struggled but couldn't escape.

"Well, well," Airachnid had her mouth back to normal now so she could taunt the trapped Predacon. "This is a nice outcome."

Airachnid saw no one in sight to rescue Ripclaw, so she grinned darkly. She examined her sharp fingers then looked back into the angry optics of the Predacon.

"You know, perhaps I should restart my trophy collection. You'll make a fine addition."

Airachnid went up and stroked her digit along the Predacon's jaw. She snapped her head and tried to bite her, but Airachnid pulled her hand away quickly. Ripclaw struggled furiously, dislodging some rubble and pulling out her claws. Ripclaw screeched and swiped forward. The hands barely grazed Airachnid's doging body.

Airachnid glared at the rebellious Predacon. "You dare?" She shouted.

One of her spiderlike limbs thrust out and stabbed Ripclaw's hand. She shrieked in pain as it drove through, and enrgon leaked out. She glared at Airachnid, heat glowing in her chest. Airachnid saw the fire building up, and flung a thick layer of webbing around her mouth and jaws. The Predacon startled, and thrashed her head and tried opening her jaws.

"Enough!" Airachnid growled. " Now…"

The energon draining tongue slid from her mouth, and Airachnid advanced toward Ripclaw. Starscream, who had been racing towards the site where the two crashed skidded to a halt at that moment. He saw the trapped and weak Predacon with dull optics. He was rooted to the spot, observing with an unreadable expression. He did not feel emotion, but his mind has carefully thinking. He might be able to do something, but maybe he just didn't care enough. Perhaps, he thought to himself, he would feel better when Airachnid killed the Predacon. Unicron claimed that this was what he wanted anyway.

Except, only he could decide what he wanted. No one would ever tell him otherwise, ever again.

He narrowed his optics and flexed his claws in anticipation.


	16. Chapter 16

**I am feeling very happy with my work :) !**

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All the while, Axer crept closer with his dagger. Megatron was far enough from the other Autobots. It was too easy, just a prick of the deadly blade, jabbed between the mech's large shoulder plates, and he would be dead in seconds.

A rather large Insecticon plunged from the air and crashed into Megatron. He grunted and slid backwards, not falling but grappling with it, holding the tube biting for his neck. Now. Axer sprang from his hiding place, dagger poised.

A sound behind Axer occurred, a huge bang or crash. Megatron had just dispatched the Insecticon and whirled around at the sound. The thin dagger plunged into his chest, and Megatron smacked away the attacker. Axer skid and crashed into a wall, eyes widened in surprise and fury,

"No, no!" Axer shouted.

Megatron ripped out the dagger that Axer had failed to inject poison from. The hit had made him lose the grip, just before he could push in the button. Megatron crushed the blade between his hand, observing the black liquid that ran through his fingers.

Axer's scream was cut off when Megatron grabbed him harshly by the throat and dangled him into the air. Axer kicked and Megatron punched him hard in the gut. He went limp.

"M'Megatron!" He choked. "Please, mercy!"

"You tried to terminate me," he growled.

"Uh, I-" Axer gasped.

Megatron grinned at him as a ring of Insecticons formed around him. As the first shrieked and lunged forward, Megatron switched his grip so he was holding Axer by the arm, then swung his body at the brute. Axer screamed before he was cut of yet again when his body collided into that of the Insecticon, knocking it flat back. Megatron whirled around and started beating every insecticon with Axer, bashing them all stunned and bloody. When Axer ceased to scream and cry, Megatron threw his unconscious body at the wall, where he lay unmoving, limp and bruised.

Megatron blasted the fallen Insecticons to bits, while the other Autobots turned back to their own fight after watching the events unfold. Cliffjumper stared at Soundwave with a shocked expression. Soundwave nodded contently before walking away.

Sunstorm charged out of the med bay feeling completely refueled. He and Knockout had pushed back all Insecticons attacking the med. Station, Sunstorm blasted and Knockout ripping them into halves and bloody quarters. Now, he was shouting and rousing the seekers. With only a thin trickle dripping from his neck, Sunstorm had no problem jetting into formation among the others. Explosions thundered overhead as the seekers maneuvered with incredible skill, ruling the skies and saving the vehicons from utter slaughter. The seekers weaved through the air, falling into position alongside Predaking, a wall in the sky that wiped out every Insecticon in their path and let no survivors escape.

The tide was turning. The wreckers had been holding their own for the longest time, but were fighting for their lives now. Some refugees leapt across the rooftops, and then joined the side of the group. It was obviously better to have a strong force instead of many smaller defences, so it was appreciated when Jazz, Ironhide and a couple others jumped in to their side.

But they were very exposed on the platform, and they couldn't fall back as there was a wall behind their backs and a drop to the ground below. Suddenly a rain of missiles came down and blew up the Insecticons in a volley of fire. They looked up in delight as jets dropped in altitude and screeched over their heads, blasting the wave of Insecticons. Dirge dropped on of his few mines into the most crowded group of ground Insecticons, and a delightful explosion followed.

Airachnid looked up at the loud noise and shouted in anger. She saw the smoke in the distance, the fire incinerating the hordes in the sky, and heard the sounds of viscous Predacons screeching and ripping through the army. Blasters continued to light the battle field, everyone was still giving it their all.

Ripclaw saw her shocked expression, and made a growling, chuckling noise. The Insecticons were losing, and Ripclaw knew that Airachnid knew this as well.

"This isn't over!" Airachnid yelled. " They will not stop me. . . And not all is lost. . ."

She ran forward. Ripclaw tensed but did not close her eyes. She was glad she didn't too, for they widened into even larger orbs in what happened next.

Airachnid choked as suddenly invisible blades slashed open her throat. Her face returned to normal, and she coughed a mouth full of energon out. She fell on one knee in front of Ripclaw, clutching her torn open throat, eyes bugged in holding the slashed wiring in her servos. An insane amount of blood poured out her wound, and she collapsed to lay in a large puddle. Dead.

Starscream looked at Ripclaw, who was still staring incredulously. She had stopped struggling and was fixed frozen. Starscream looked away, and it was his turn to stare incredulous.

Suddenly a rain of lifeless Insecticons came from the sky, breaking on the ground and buildings. The ones the Autobots and refugees had been fighting randomly froze, and the light in their eyes went out. The fell flat, dead at the feet of the fighters. The fighters who looked at each other with mixed looks of confusion, joy and relief. The storm was over.

Seekers who had landed on buildings broke the silence with loud cheers. The others took up the applause, smiling at former Decepticons and Autobots alike. They had won, they had survived.

With this sense of accomplishment, Starscream jetted away to find Cliffjumper and Soundwave. Not too long after though, powerful wing beats brought Predaking down to the ground. Quickly Darksteel and Skylynx appeared on the scene, running in together.

The three Predacons transformed and set themselves on the task of freeing Ripclaw. They stepped around the bloody body of Airachnid and tore the webbing off her face. When enough rubble was taken off, she slid out, transformed back into her strange, bot form.

"What happened? Are you alright?" Predaking asked.

"I'm… fine," she answered quietly. She looked down at the body. "But, I… I don't know what happened. I thought I saw-

She shook her head as if clearing away a ridiculous idea. "Nevermind. I'm just glad it's over."

Starscream did not tell them about Airachnid.

"It's over," was all he said as he made his way to them.

"There you are!" Cliffjumper whooped in excitement. "You won't believe what happened! Axer was stealing up on Megatron with a dagger, but Soundwave! Man, that dude was amazing! He, he did it! He saved Megatron's life!"

"Really? How?" Starscream said.

"He smacked the wall as hard as he could, and it made enough sound to alert the big guy," Cliffjumper smiled. " It didn't end that well for him though."

Not too far away, Axer still sat unconscious against the wall. He was bruised and cut all over his body, looking small and battered.

"I'm surprised he wasn't killed," Starscream remarked.

"But he's different now, remember? Axer should consider himself lucky for that."

The city around them was destroyed and smoking in many places. Only one building had been felled, and that was the one that had landed on Ripclaw. Other than that, everything was still in new condition and needed little work. But Starscream didn't think Vos would be worked on until the rubble of the battle was cleared. In addition, the honorable Autobots would want the bodies of the vehicons and Insecticons cleared away and buried. Yes, it would still be awhile yet.

"We know now what we are capable of now," Starscream said while staring at the scene around them. "What will we do now?"

"That depends on what is left to do," Cliffjumper said.

"Or rather, what we want to do," Starscream raised an eyebrow. " I don't understand what you mean."

Soundwave stepped forward, reached out and stroke his digits down Starscream's arm before holding on tightily to his forearm. It felt like the optics behind the visor were staring into the ruby red of his own. The silence of the faceless mech was unnerving, and Starscream felt emotion fill his body. The strongest was fear, making him light and want to panic.

"No," he choked. "We don't have to. . . I'm not- I don't want to!"

Soundwave let his servo breeze the rest of the way down his arm until it returned to his side. He nodded before stepping back to Cliffjumper's side. Cliffjumper softly spoke.

"It's okay, you can take your time. But there will be a day when you will be ready."

Starscream shook his head, optics wide and he was tapping his claws together. He let the sorrow overwhelm him, and he couldn't help but begin acting emotional.

"It's not fair," he whispered. " It never was. I didn't want to die in the first place, even now I still want to keep living…"

"It's something we all have to accept eventually, 'Scream. The hardest thing in the world… it's just letting go of that last echo," Cliffjumper said.

" But we've done so much just now!" Starscream was raising his voice. "A battle just ended, and we helped! We can keep going, we can contribute and aid everyone. We can still be a part of their lives."

Starscream looked more directly at Cliffjumper now. " You can figure it out too, you know. Maybe you can help Arcee, you can live with the Autobots."

Cliffjumper shook his head. "That's not the same as being with them, and it upsets me as much as you. Even if we live beside them every day, they will never know we're there. It's half a life, no. Not even that."


	17. Chapter 17

Starscream allowed both his wings to droop down low. It was too obvious how upset he was, so Cliffjumper decided that it would be better to drop the subject for now. There was no escaping it though, and here was another thing Cliffjumper knew that only Starscream could figure out on his own. He needed peace, but he still couldn't control the conflicting emotions inside of him. Cliffjumper thought more and decided he regretted bringing up the topic in the first place. The beasts he created and him using his ability to touch the living world to inflict harm, he still was getting over the stress and anger all of it brought him.

Cliffjumper felt better about himself, and he knew that he was ready to join the Allspark. Soundwave was too. They all had died unprepared and in cruel ways. But Cliffjumper had a lot of time alone to sort out his problems, and Soundwave felt content because he had saved Megatron. They felt like they had finally concluded and lived a full life, and perhaps it was time to start new ones. But Starscream… Cliffjumper actually grimaced to Soundwave, they knew they couldn't leave Starscream alone to suffer by himself. Who knows what could happen, if there was no one to support and calm him.

If Starscream accidently brought back the beasts, he might wipe himself out of existence. But Starscream didn't want to give up his life, he was terrified of erasing and forgetting everything about himself and starting again. The next life … it didn't feel like being reborn. You wouldn't know you were even reborn, you wouldn't know if you had been somebody before at all. None of them knew if they had a life before either. That is why Starscream did not want to leave, he was afraid of forgetting the memories and existence of himself. Good or bad experiences, the suddenness of his death was too unfair to him.

He hated the Predacons. He saved Ripclaw, but he felt too emotional and now he wished he hadn't saved her. The Predacons were forcing him to do this him. They took away his existing in the other world, and now there was no going back. Starscream wanted to scream, to kill, collapse and cry right then and there. He knew deep down that he couldn't stay in this state forever, and that he had nowhere else to go now but with the Allspark. Whether he was ready or not.

He didn't act. He just stood there, close his eyes and barely whispered, "then let me at least see Vos rebuilt. I'll- I'll go then."

"You don't have to,"Cliffjumper said. "You can take-

"No."

Starscream turned his head, and upon doing so he saw Axer stir then, who had begun moaning, his optics flickering online. He went to rise but the pain was too much, and he lay back against the wall. Megatron walked over, and lifted the mech in his arms. Axer might had panicked and pulled a weapon, but just being held made him groan in pain and grow weary. Megatron took the prisoner in the direction of the Nemesis, back into the brig in any case. Except now, he had enough proof and no interrogation would be needed. And that was for the better, Starscream thought. Axer was a skilled killer, and he had a grim determination too strong to stop from ceasing to murder.

"He's lucky," Starscream said. "You were right when you said that. When he's locked away, he can't do anything. He is alike myself, if he continues on his path, he will destroy himself."

Starscream disappeared just then. He returned to where Airachnid's body lay, or where it used to lay. He saw the scorch marks and ashes, and Starscream knew that the Predacons made sure that he virus would never spread again. Good riddance.

But the Predacons were nowhere to be seen. Starscream flashed to random parts of the city, confirming his theory that they decided not to tell the Autobots of Airachnid. He wasn't sure why they would have done this, but perhaps it was done by Ripclaw's request. Maybe the other Predacons believed she killed her, and nothing else. This didn't bug Starscream however ,for he knew that there was no way Ripclaw could come up with a logical explanation anyway.

Shockwave did not know anything of the battle. He still worked at his computers, never becoming bored in his advanced studies. So, Starscream thought as he regarded the mech, there was no way he could of heard the sounds of battle, been told of it as well, while located on the other side of the globe. But he would hear about it eventually. Those sickenly loyal Predacons would tell him.

Vos looked better now that there was no evil he produced here. It would take a while to build yet, so Starscream still had time on his self-appointed deadline. Then was movement on the ground. Green lit up on the streets. A groundbridge had been opened.

An assembly line of Vehicons carrying tools, materials and machinery came through. It was amazing! The battle had just ended, and already they went back to work. Yet the seekers must have pressured the builders to split construction between the damage in the Sea of Rust and to the commencement of Vos. This contented and saddened Starscream.

Cliffjumper suddenly appeared beside him. Starscream turned around in surprise, not expecting him to show up so soon after his departure. Before Starscream could ask however, Cliffjumper made it directly to the point.

"Starscream. That conversation we were having, Soundwave and I… nevermind. Please, just come with me now, Soundwave want to say goodbye."

"H- what? No, he's not… you're joking, aren't you?" Starscream's optics grew wide.

"He feels ready now,. After what he did during the battle, he is content with how his life went," Cliffjumper said.

But before Cliffjumper told where to go, Starscream already knew where and had left. He sprinted the final half mile yelling. Soundwave was standing at the edge of the Well of Allsparks but turned upon hearing Starscream.

"Soundwave, do not do this," Starscream said. " Please, don't go, you don't have to. You can still exist, it doesn't have to end here-

Soundwave held Starscream's arm again, but brought him close to him. They barely touched, but this was the equivalent of an embrace with Soundwave. Starscream went quiet, and he closed his eyes, and bowed his helm.

"I understand," he whispered. "But it doesn't mean we're not going to miss you."

Soundwave softly let go of his arm, turned around and started back to the edge. He paused, then turned his visor back to Starscream. It was a precious moment, as it had been so long since Starscream had heard him speak.

"Good luck," was what the monotone voice said to him.

Soundwave walked off the edge and fell. He was gone from sight, and very soon his being, gone to existence forever.

This made Starscream collapse on the ground. He fell to his knees, bent forward with one arm holding him up like he had done so many times before. Back before he became evil, part of the Decepticons, he collapsed for the fall of Vos. After he lost the ability for remorse, he collapsed because of the pain and suffering Megatron inflicted on him as punishment for his treachery .His soul bloody and torn when it had first escaped from the scene of gore left by the Predacons. Seeing his dead savaged body. In fear, shock and pain after first encountering the creatures. After the horror of the shadow creatures first appearing. In pain and confusion in Cliffjumper's unexpected attack. And now.

He fell no longer for himself, but once again out of grief for others. He fell for Soundwave.

The silent one that only now Starscream had learned to respect and, yes. The sorrow he felt now was proof that he had liked Soundwave. Soundwave had comforted him in his times of trouble, but Starscream, being himself, didn't exactly show his appreciation at that time. But both knew now that much had changed, they had been . . .

"We were friends," Cliffjumper heard him whisper.

"Starscream, just because he's gone now doesn't mean you guys aren't anymore. You will always be friends, forever now," Cliffjumper came up to place a hand on his wing.

"But we won't remember. In the next life, everything's different there and-

"You never know. It could happen," Cliffjumper said firmly, trying to calm Starscream's grief.

"He's gone forever! He's not coming back, everything about him is erased out of existence now. Don't you understand? Why can't you see this?" Starscream got up and turned to him with optics shining with sadness. "Why couldn't he see that?"

Starscream picked up a piece of metal and started bending and twisting it in his hand. He curved it into a fine shape, then expectantly crushed it into his hands. He smashed the ball of scrap onto the ground.

"Slaggit Soundwave why?" He cried out. "Why would you do that? Why did you…"

Starscream wanted to scratch and wreck something but there was no rubble for him to take out his emotions on.

" 'Scream calm down! He knew he was ready, he knew that he had to go. Starscream, it's okay."

Now where was the last time he heard someone say such a thing to him? It's okay. Those words were meant for comforting someone. The first time in the longest time, he thought. Finally someone cared enough to say this, but it was a lie. Nothing was okay. Nothing would ever be okay ever again.

"You say it's okay. But it's not okay though," he snarled. "Good, bad. It never really mattered did it? Because all our fates will be the same, won't they? But remember, it's okay, isn't it."

"Don't talk like that 'Scream. You know that it can hurt you."

"And what if I continue to do so? Those beasts can come and kill me if they like. I don't care. I can start anew, I can be destroyed completely, both mean that I, Starscream, will never be again."


	18. Chapter 18

He flew away, and he cracked the sound barrier straightaway. It was impossible, but the emotions were radiating off of him, the physical world reacted. Cliffjumper wanted to follow him, but he couldn't guess when it would be safe to teleport, not knowing when Starscream would land on the ground. And it was a good thing he didn't too, for Starscream flew very fast and for very long, until the later hours, never tiring. He flew like he did his first flight away in the beginning of his afterlife. The world kept going, the plain of rubble and destroyed cities never ending. He fled, wanting to escape the emotions, but no matter how much ground he covered, they followed him across the world.

Starscream landed in the middle of an empty plain, far from any cities now. The ground was gray in the day, but at night was illuminated silver by the two moons. The night had no breeze tonight, so all was silent, silver and beautiful.

He felt so small in the plain that expanded as far as he could see. He felt insignificant, truly in the grandness and greater scheme of life. In reality, he realised, he was one of the many who had their life taken from them. He wasn't special; in fact he was worse for doing upon others what the Predacons did to him. He told Unicron he had excuses. He had none.

"Where did I go wrong?"

The most basic but strongest question for himself. So simple and important. When did the suffering begin? When did he become sadistic and evil? The answer came immediately, and that was that there was no specific time. It was all gradual, and he had never noticed before the change.

"Primus," he whispered. " I've done many, many terrible things in life. I've suffered, and I've made others suffer. I hope beyond anything else in the world that you will grant me a life better than the one I fragged up. And for Soundwave and Cliiffjumper, they deserve better than I."

He covered his optics with his servo and sighed heavily. His quivered, gasping out the sorrow within himself. So many ages of built up and emotion stored away, before and after death. Alone under the moons in a glowing field of silver he screamed long and hard. Yelling, screaming, cursing and gasping. Eventually he felt too mentally exhausted, and the cries ended. It still hurt, but the energy was released and now he longer wanted to act. He no longer made a sound or moved, instead just stared out at the sky and its tantalizing expanse of darkness and stars.

A scream reached his audios. He stared around, but he was most definitely alone. The screeching, he listened further, it didn't seem to be real. Was it a trick of his mind? No, it was still going. He felt sure, some kind of feeling, that it was a real sound, even if it wasn't coming from close to him. He concentrated, and he arrived into another location.

The dark silhouettes of the buildings surrounded him. The streetlights glowed like close, blue stars, but their light still didn't fully illuminate the scene at the end of the street. Screeching sounds as metal was being torn and screams of agony echoing without the city. Commotion as wheels could be heard quickly approaching the scene.

Starscream ran closer, trying to see what was happening. Suddenly he made out the large and empowering figure of a Predacon, who raked its claws across the body beneath it. Starscream yelped in horror, finally seeing what was happening. There was a large body going still, the Predacon moving off it and flicking energon of its claws. The engines approached nearer, but instead of fleeing it transformed and leaned across the wall.

Autobots, including refugees came with barred weapons and were yelling. They turned on lights and Ripclaw was clearly illuminated over the mutilated corpse of Barricade. She was groaning and rubbing her head, but looked up in surprise when the lights fell upon her.

"Freeze!" Jazz hollered.

Ripclaw raised her arms out innocently, but then something happened. She twitched, and her eyes changed a shade of colour. Suddenly she transformed into her beast form, roaring and pouncing into the crowd. They set upon her with weapons, stabbing and shooting her. She bit into Bulkhead, but he dealt a good blow to her head that sent her stumbling to the side awkwardly. He then yelled and glanced at his shoulder where a strange green fluid dripped. He went and started removing it from his cut, but it was obvious what it was. Venom.

She tore a good rip into Smokescreen's chassis, and he fell without getting back up. Wheeljack came in with his double swords at that moment, stabbing them both into her neck. She squawked, and began thrashing as blood started leaking out. But her armour was strong, and the injury wasn't deep enough to be fatal.

There were refugees who arrived in hearing the noise of battle. Two seekers dropped onto her back just then, Dirge and the blue seeker Hydrostorm shooting blasts at her back. Ripclaw using her tail to grab one of them, Hydrostorm and throw him to the ground. She went to bite him in the middle, but he rolled suddenly and she sunk her fangs into his wing. Dirge however, grabbed the swords and preceded to stab her repeatedly in the back. She let go before injecting her poision, and she finally fell over, weak from her many wounds.

Bulkhead immediately ran over and pounded her face until she ceased to move.

"We need to get this Predacon contained straight away!" Ultra Magnus commanded.

A groundbridge was called so that supplies could come through- makeshift stasis cuffs large enough and strong enough to hold her still. A clamp on her mouth and wingclips. The only thing they couldn't hold down was her powerful tail.

Ratchet and Knockout came through, working tag team on the wounded. The injuries were serious in many, but they quickly made patchwork for them. But there was nothing they could do for Barricade. The bulky mech was long gone, ripped into halves that barely clung to each other by wires.

"Why did she do this?" Knockout said, surveying the body and blood spilled from the others.

A terrible rage filled Starscream. He felt blinded by the anger, and a dangerous glint in his eye. He walked right up to Knockout. He spoke with a great emphasis.

"Because she is a Predacon. They only know how to kill and savage!"

Starscream glared at the body, with the torn organs and bit marks. He started exhaling heavily, the anger boiling over.

"And I saved her miserable fraggin' life. What the frag was. I. Thinking!" He was screaming the words now, and he went to kick over a pile of stacked metal. But anger was not an emotion that allowed him to impact the physical world, and so his ped merely went through it. He snarled in frustration, the anger was becoming too much for him.

"You fraggin' Predacon!" He screamed. " I hate you! I hate your all of your savage and brutish kind!"

The unconscious Predacon, he was unable to harm. He tried anyway though, growing angrier and angrier when nothing happened.

"Fraggin' die you beast!"

He disappeared, but at that time Cliffjumper arrived. The ripped body and blood on the Predacon's claws and fangs made him feel dread. He hoped, but knew that if he heard the death screams, there was no way Starscream had missed these as well. He groaned and said," this is not going to end well."

Then suddenly, he was at Vos. On the cliff beside his grave, he saw the city illuminated by the moons. A purple glow came from the city, but he grinned insanely, no longer giving a frag. Clinking and growling came behind him, and he turned to the shadow beasts that stalked from the darkness sided by the smaller white and sharp-bodied predators. Flaring purple eyes returned his gaze. Starscream turned around as wing beats sounded behind him.

A new beast hovered behind him. Sharp purple eyes glared at him from behind a mask of black feathers tinged at the tips with purple. It gleamed in the night, massive wings and feathers flapping slowly and powerfully, a large clawed thumb on each one. It had a broad chest and narrow abdomen. Powerful legs, long but not springy like any shadow creature. It had talons spread before a long, flowing, feathery tail. A beak open and growled.

It dove forward and pinned him. Starscream felt the hooked claws under the softness around him. Like a secret weapon slipping out. But he was too furious for fear, and he spat into the face moving toward him, "leave me alone, I've grown weary of this."

The creature screeched into his face. "Enough!" He screamed.

The creature flapped its wings and rose off of him and hovered in the air above him. The creatures stopped and stared. The feathered tail curved and flowed in a breeze that began to pick up. Purple ridges glimmering beautifully.

"Just fraggin' leave me alone! I deal with so much slag already as it is, why the scrap are you still here?" Starscream was yelling and cursing, glaring down the beasts around him. The winged creature spread its wings, wider and wider, the purple outlines glowing brighter… "No one understands. Nothing ever turns out well for me, whether I mean well or not. I've made many mistakes in life, but I'm sick of the suffering! The depression, grief and pain! I. Have. Had. Enough!"

The winged beast shrieked and purple light exploded from its body, the sky, cliff and world was washed in purple that turned into intense white, the black figure of the creature going higher and higher. Then a deafening boom, and a wave of light flashed across the horizon. All the creatures incinerated when the light slashed through them, and the silver of the night returned.

Vos was quiet, but Cliffjumper suddenly saw a flash, and then heard commotion. Suddenly, every power source brightened with a great intensity before burning out completely in but a second. One by one, the lights in the Sea of Rust plunged into darkness, until no power was left. The Autobots, on the far end of the city from the wandering Cliffjumper, had only their lights to guard around them from any threats.

And somewhere further away, the Vehicons abroad the Nemesis were astonished when suddenly their monitors went off, and all the lights disappeared. The hall lights turned off one by one. Their optics remained the only light source burning through the black.

* * *

**Did anyone notice that I just described the front cover? Hahaha! There it is!**


	19. Chapter 19

**I'll make it easier to have visual representation of Axer (again, none of the characters in this story are OC). Just imagine the TFP version of Transformers Animated Lockdown!**

* * *

And in the less occupied corner of the Nemesis, the guard to Axer's cell yelled in surprise a, "what the- when the lights brightened then left the halls into a state where he couldn't see the servo in front of his face.

Axer saw the lights go out from the crack just under the door. He waited, but the lights didn't return. The power was out. He smirked, and transformed his arm into a very powerful saw. It sliced through the door and the vehicon guard in seconds, and with the power off, no alarm was triggered to recognize his escape. He turned on the headlights on his chest and confidently walked through the halls, a trail of death did he leave behind him. But a trail of bodies he did not, for he made sure not to be too obvious.

He walked out into the night and drove toward the city without lights. He didn't know what happened, but there was no way he wasn't going to let such an advantage go. For now, he had a mission to complete. Another he assigned himself, he still wished for revenge. But Megatron was a target too difficult to achieve. The next best would also be hard, but he knew he could accomplish it only with great stealth. Even then, he knew he would have to find that target absolutely alone. On a night like this, he didn't think that would be too hard.

His arm has now a curved hook for slicing throats.

Starscream had followed the wave that streaked across the horizon. He skipped to the Sea of Rust after seeing no change in the demolished cities before. He circled over the blackened city, astonished. Had he done this? Did his anger become great enough to . . .

He landed on a building, looking at one of the occupied apartment buildings that just started waking up with sound. These ones lived further away, and Starscream assumed that perhaps they hadn't heard the screams before, and that was why they only emerged now from their rooms. They were incredulous at the sudden loss of power, and decided to seek the answers for the failure.

Some stumbled through the dark streets, trying to remember the route to the Nemesis. Some started off together, but eventually split off by themselves unintentionally. They walked alone in the night. Silverbolt was further ahead than everyone else. He hadn't noticed how much faster he was walking, but when he asked upon which direction to turn now, and he received no response did he realize he was alone.

He did not like being alone by himself in the dark streets. He could barely see in front of him, he felt exposed and defenseless on the ground. He stopped and looked at the sky. Now that his grounder lackies had disappeared, he might as well just fly, shouldn't he?

Axer had been sneaking behind the group. He like them, could barely see, but he felt sure that he had found his target. He followed them until the inevitable occurred; they separated. He came closer to his target, who had stopped at the corner under the silhouette of a streetlight. The moon brightened the seeker's silver wings when he moved. Axer grinned darkly again, satisfied with all his luck.

Silverbolt gasped when suddenly a hook wrapped around and slit his neck. He panicked, blood gushing all over himself, and he lashed out at his attacker. Axer didn't expect this resilience, so he pulled out his dagger held the seeker's bloody neck in his now returned servo, and stabbed the bot repeatedly in the chest. Silverbolt ceased to struggle, and Axer let him slid from his grip and lay on the ground.

At that moment, Ratchet had restarted the power grid in the city and the light returned to the streets. The blue light shone upon the body, and only then did Axer realize he had made a terrible mistake. The body before him was clearly someone else… he had killed the wrong bot.

Starscream had at that moment saw the scene while flying, and he landed beside Axer and stared at the bloody knife and Silverbolt's body. He was close enough to the assassin to hear him.

"Sorry about that," he grunted. "I thought you were that snivelling Starscream character."

Little did Starscream know that Axer had also seen Barricade's body and Ripclaw held beside it. That was why he left it there. It was easy to let others jump to conclusions, and it was one less mess to clean up.

Axer made himself scarce in the newly illuminated city. We snuck away, and Starscream followed him. Axer was still looking for his target. But what would he do when he figured out his target was already dead?

They couldn't drag the large bulk of the Predacon into a groundbridge nor could they fit her into a brig that would be strong enough to hold her. And another problem was that they couldn't keep her locked up in her beast form as one, it was much more powerful and also, there was no way they could get any answers from her as she couldn't speak in that form. They only solution that they could think of, proposed by Dirge, was that they keep some remote controlled mines on her wings in case things got out of hand. They removed her bonds then, and stepped back, they determinedly guarding her.

It was only because Ratchet and Knockout had finished patching wounds did they finally move to minding Barricade's body. It was a job they couldn't do themselves though, as Barricade was even larger than Bulkhead himself. With the groundbridge reopened, Ultra Magnus and Bulkhead went through it, bearing the very heavy body between them. It would have to be cleaned up, so it was left on a medical berth for attendance soon.

It was amazing how quickly the Predacon recovered. Her optics fluttered open, and she stared drowsily at the guns pointed toward her face. When she finally felt the weight of the grenades on her wings her optics widened in shock.

She transformed into her bipedal form, and looked around herself in fear and confusion.

"What's happening? Wh-what are you doing?"

"It's not about what's happening, but about what's happened," Jazz took over as the main speaker, his voice loud and smooth. "And what you've done, Predacon."

"I- I don't know what you mean. . ." but she trailed off in seeing some of the wounded glaring at her.

"She's lying!" Hydrostorm spat, still clutching his injury.

"Why don't you take a good look at your claws if you're having too hard of a time remembering," there was a hint of sarcasm in Jazz's voice.

She dumbly looked down and gasped at her drenched hands. She knew straight away that it wasn't her blood. And not only that, but there was a lot of the energon, dripping all over her fingers.

"I don't remember a thing though! I swear, I didn't mean to hurt anyone!"

Bulkhead scoffed.

"You did more than just that," the seeker Dirge growled out. "You killed Barricade, you beast!"

"I-I killed someone?" She barely choked out. "No, I wouldn't do that, I'm-I'm not like that!"

"Don't listen to her!" Someone called out.

"Please!" She had pleading and sad eyes. "I don't know what happened, I can't remember anything!"

Bumblebee had to act as the voice of reason to prevent the outrage of the others to lead to violence. The situation was more dangerous for he was not in control of the device for the bombs.

"Then what do you remember? What was the last thing you did?" He asked.

" I was by myself, just before sundown. I, found some really could energon. . . but that's it," she breathed. "W-wait though. . ."

"We're listening," Bumblebee encouraged.

"I'm not sure if this means anything, but it was different somehow. It was sweeter, and not blue. It was, um, purple energon."

"Dark energon!" Many gasped in unison.

"That would explain a lot," Jazz chirped.

It wasn't her fault, Cliffjumper realized. Ripclaw was innocent, she had been under its effects. Starscream needed to know, before he did something big again. He needed-

"Starscream!"

The seeker did not turn around, even when Cliffjumper came sprinting toward him. He glared in front of him, and said seriously, "don't come near me."

"Did you cause the power outage? 'Scream, what did you do?"

Starscream whipped around and Cliffjumper froze in his stroll towards him. His optics widened and he exclaimed a , "whoa!"

Starscream glared at him angrily, optics aglow with a purple light.

" Mech, this is all wrong. Whatever is going on with you right now, he need to do something. Your optics, they are purple 'Scream. This is all bad."

"No, no," he snapped. "It's okay, so we don't need to worry!"

"What happened to understanding, feeling emotions? How do you think Soundwave would feel if he knew this is what you did after he left?"

"Frag Soundwave, he's gone! Do not talk to me about theoretical matters, reality is much more prominent! And the reality is that I saved that miserable Predacon's life, and she murdered Barricade. That was my fault! I should have never thought that a beast like her species to know anything else but mindless violence!"

"Hold up 'Scream. What are you talking about?"

"Airachnid," Starscream growled. "I slit her throat to keep her from killing that Predacon. Maybe I thought I changed, and I felt good about that. But now, she must pay. I will kill everyone of that primitive species. And if you know any better, you won't get in my way."

His purple optics shined dangerously, his body darkening into another shade. He unclenched his fist, flashing sharp claws threateningly.

"But I came to tell you- it's all a misunderstanding! Ripclaw woke up, and-

Cliffjumper froze mid-sentence when he heard a heavy and slow exhale behind him. He slowly turned, and a dark shadow towered over him. Flaring purple eyes, rings of violet within, highlighted a snout that spread into a grin of crooked and sharp teeth. Cliffjumper hopped back to Starscream's side with a yelp.

It moved forward on all fours, springy, black limbs ending with long fingers. It hissed softly, and slightly parted its wings, a predator stalking closer.

"What in the name of Primus is that?" Cliffjumper gasped.

It chuckled in dark tones. A voice without origin whispered around them.

_I'm just a friend of the seeker, is all . . ._


	20. Chapter 20

"Leave, Cliffjumper," Starscream growled, fixing him with a purple glare. "Don't get in my way."

Cliffjumper glanced at the tall creature and then back at him. "No 'Scream. You can't do this, you have no idea of what happened back there! The Predacon, Ripclaw is innocent!"

Starscream narrowed his eyes, "frag you!"

He suddenly lunged forward and slashed a deep wound into Cliffjumper's chest. He coughed, falling onto his knees and stared at the cuts. The wounds were not intended to be fatal, but the fact that he attacked him after all they've been though was startling enough. Light foot falls, and he approached. Starscream, a dark figure, stood over him.

This was not going well at all. Cliffjumper knew that he had to get through his stubborn him and get him to realize that there was nothing to be raging about. He needed to be stopped before he did something very, very bad. Beyond the injury he gave Cliffjumper, much worse than that. The influence of Unicron needed to be shaken off, it made Starscream insanely dangerous.

"Starscream!"Cliffjumper gasped. "It was an accident Ripclaw was-

Starscream kicked him hard in the side toppling him over. "Shut up! Just shut. Up!" He kicked the red mech once more. Now it was getting worse, and he had assumed the stereotypical shouting of an insane person.

The creature behind him chuckled again. It moved up so that it was beside Starscream and it whispered to him. _I knew you had it in you. I told you, didn't I ? Revenge and cruelty is a part of you. Embrace it, you have much power. Don't let anyone stop you!_

"Don't… listen to it!" Cliffjumper coughed. " That doesn't have to be you. Remember the creatures you conquered in Vos? You are stronger than this!"

_Kill him_. It whispered. _I can feel it in you, you want to. You will kill him again, I've already told this to you, and I see it happening soon._

"Frag you Unicron! You can shut-up too!"

"Unicron?" Cliffjumper looked up at the creature. It glared. "Then you most definitely should not listen to him. But hear me. Ripclaw was influenced by dark energon. If you're going to be angry at someone, he's the one to blame!"

_That is an excuse._ Unicron said. _To hide the motives of her crimes! And what of the other Predacons? They have caused just as much pain to you. What were their excuses? You must punish them!_

"Ripclaw didn't know what she was doing," Cliffjumper said. "She's not the beast you think all Predacons are!"

"But they are all beasts! They will only kill more, ripping them apart just like what they did to me!"

_End him already. His ignorance continues to be a bother. _

Starscream raised his claws to strike, but he faltered. His optics flashed red for a second before returning to purple.

" 'Scream. If you do this, you will only hurt yourself. Revenge, don't you remember? It's not a solution."

Starscream lowered his raised arm, his optics red again. He froze, staring blankly at his blood covered fingers. Cliffjumper rose into a kneel, waiting. Then, the beast roared angrily. _What are you doing? Kill him! Make everyone who has ever done wrong to you suffer! It is what you have always wanted! You want to spill the blood, torture-_

"I'm not one of your minions to control! Stop telling me what I want! Only I can decide that! " Starscream walked pointedly to the creature. " And you are nothing to me, so I believe it is time for you to leave me."

It snarled at him in anger for his insolence, it lunged forward, but was suddenly bowled over by a mass of feathers. Talons hooked into its body and Unicron's avatar struggled to escape. The feathered creature looked up at Starscream at Cliffjumper. It was epic, how Starscream nodded slightly and the purple eyes of the creature turned silver, its feather highlighting as they changed as well. The thing glimmered in the moonlight, long graceful tail a sheen of beauty. It reached its head down, spread out angelic wings and used its beak to tear open the throat of the shadow creature below it. There was no blood, but a flow of silver petals that flew upwards and into the night sky. It shuddered and let out a sigh, and sunk, becoming black sand under the talons. The blackness blew away and rose into spirals around the rising silver.

The black feathers turned silver, matching the edges. The thing glowed too brightly to look at, and they shielded their optics with their arms. Then it was gone, the savior.

"Did you make that last creature?"Cliffjumper was still staring in confusion. "Because that was pretty messed up!"

"I'm sorry,"Starscream said suddenly, realizing the wounds he inflicted on Clffjumper.

"I know," Cliffjumper said. "It was the first thing you ever said when you saw me."

"What I said about Soundwave too, I didn't mean it-

"It's fine 'Scream. It's over now, those creatures and whatever just happened there . . .it's all done for."

Starscream closed his optics and nodded slowly.

Sunstorm's screech was cut off when his wings and back hit the wall hard. A drill was held level to his optic, Axer glared at him from behind the weapon. Sunstorm groaned, the day had not been going well for him at all. The hand wrapped tightly around his throat aggravating his wound from the bite from the Insecticon. The drill was whirling, so Sunstorm shivered in the grasp, struggling to speak but unable to because the hand was crushing his vocader. Axer loosened up and Sunstorm quickly yelped, "don't kill me!"

Axer powered off the drill, but still held it close to Sunstorm's optic. His point had been made. He shushed the seeker, and said in a soft and innocent tone, " hey, hey, you're okay. As long as you tell me everything I want to know is all. . ."

Sunstorm couldn't nod, but he tried to do so frantically. "Yes! Yes of course, anything!" He squeaked.

"Good. Now I want you to tell me, where could I find that Starscream seeker hmm? Do you know anything about him?"

"St-Starscream?" Sunstorm choked. "I don't know too much about him, and I don't think I can help you-

Axer grunted and let the drill move closer to his optic. "No, no wait!" Sunstorm cried. " I mean to say, I can't help you because you can't see him or anything because he's already dead!"

Axer took away the drill for the moment. He leaned in close to the quivering, gold and gray seeker and whispered, "I'm listening."

"I-I," Sunstorm stuttered, terrified under the cruel glare of the assassin. "I've heard that some Predacons did him in just recently, and-and he's buried on a hill over Vos or something. Is-Is that good?"

Axer was disappointed by the news that he himself wouldn't be the one to terminate the treacherous Starscream mech, but he still had intentions to do something offensive in the seeker's name at least. He grinned darkly at Sunstorm, who smiled meekly back, mistaking the smile for a good thing.

"Yes. You have been most helpful," Axer smirked.

"Can-can I go now?" Sunstorm whimpered. "I promise I won't say a word! You can hunt me down later if I do, so we're good now, right?"

"Or…" Axer turned back on the drill.

"No! No please!" the small seeker cried. "Don't kill me! Please! I swear I won't tell! Don't kill me!"

"You know too much already," Axer said, annoyed by the pitiful mess he held by the throat.

"What do I know? I don't know anything, nope! Nothing at all!" Sunstorm said as sincerely as he could with a drill just centimetres from his left optic.

"Hmm," now Axer was rethinking his idea. He already had one dead seeker on his list, if he added another, would it be too much of a clue that he was the murderer? He didn't want to make anything too obvious if someone was to figure him out by chance. So he instead smashed Sunstorm on the wall once, very hard, then lead him fall onto his knees gasping.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Sunstorm cried, ignoring the pain in his happiness. "I won't let a word pass my lips!"

"You'd better not," Axer warned as he turned around turning his servo back to normal. "I will kill you in a slow, excruciating way if you do."

As expected, Sunstorm automatically fled as soon as he was sure of his liberty. He blasted into the sky, a gold bolt zipping away. And that was fine, so long as he didn't get in the way of his plans. So, now Axer transformed at that moment as well, zipping through the streets to get out of the city as fast as possible, and then starting his long journey. He hadn't been on Cybertron for a long, long time, but he could still remember the way. Even if it took all of the night and another day or two, he would make it to Vos. He would scavenge for energon on the way, but since the planet was healed, new energon would be found in plenty now. Everything was turning out well for him.

"Yes," Starscream nodded slowly. "Everything's . . . fine."

"How are you feeling now?" Cliffjumper asked sincerely.

"Can-can I think about it? I mean, I'm not sure, but I . . .might want to consider it a little . . ."

Cliffjumper froze when he realized what Starscream was talking about. He had brought it up randomly, but then, in consideration it wasn't at all too random after what had just happened. So, he responded quietly, "alright, do whatever you like, 'Scream."

"And, you are sure too?" He inquired in a quieter voice as well.

"Yes, but only if you are," Cliffjumper replied.

" Then let us meet at the Well in a solar cycle's time," Starscream said. "And maybe . . ."

He turned from Cliffjumper now, and walked away slowly. He transformed and lifted off in a slower pace than of all those times he had stormed away swiftly. No, it was going to be very different now. And it was going to be either a very long or short week coming, but the overall importance is that he was going to be alone in his thoughts, and alone in his flights around the world and walks under the silent sun.

He flew for a long time without any conflicting thoughts coursing through his mind. It was like he was going for a joy flight, and it was just him and the endless skies to enjoy. The ground far below went by in grey and brown patches, and of course it wasn't the best to look at, it was nicer imagining them as they were before the war, or even better, when they would be fixed. The clear sky was like a dome above him, expanding far and with a ceiling of black and shimmering stars like dots of beauty. He was a streak of silver breaking the black fabric, and if he could have been seen, perhaps he would have just been a shooting star.


	21. Chapter 21

The tones of the sky eventually grew lighter. It was foggy grey until pink and orange streaks were the first to appear over the horizon. And then, brilliant orange, it was even more beautiful than a sunrise on earth, the pollution here made it much more stunning. Wow. He leapt onto the roof of a building with holes in it from explosions that happened long ago. He held onto a metal pole sticking up, leaning to the side while he was captivated. The rays that went through him still made him appear orange, at least to himself. And the brown, rusted metal of the city buildings seemed to take on a different coat of paint while the horizon was not visible behind the intense glare of the sun.

"Why haven't I seen this before?" he asked himself out loud. He kept staring, amazed by the splendor that he had failed to notice for the better part of his life. But even before his cruel turn during the war, was there ever a time where he stopped to enjoy the most basic beauties in life? Maybe, but he couldn't remember. Yet we wondered why he had been that way, not appreciating everything beautiful in life until it was gone. Was this part of what he had stayed after death? This moment, this precious moment, it was like a whole other world in which he had never experienced before.

He had about one solar cycle, he thought. I will choose something, but it does not matter which, for whatever happens, this is what I want to enjoy for every breem of that time period.

He wished he could have felt the comforting warmth of the sun on his frame, but he did not let this keep him from letting the thinnest of smiles play on his lips.

Everything was appreciated, the clarity of the skies, the sun, moon, plateaus, edges of piece of rubble. . . he did not forget to regard each thing closely. Days passed more quickly did than he had expected, but as night fell he felt content that he had spent it to the fullest. However, because recharge was an optional thing, he did not do it. He made sure to stay the night and observe how the silver light was more silent and gorgeous when he wasn't in a rage.

On the third day of his isolation, he was standing in the ruins of Crystal City. The exploded glass shards were still throughout the streets, dirtied beyond luminescence throughout the long time it had lain there. He was holding one in his servos then, scraping away dirt when suddenly a chill ran down his back. It had been small, but prickling. He didn't know what had caused it, so he looked around himself to see if someone was there. Seeing nothing, he returned to the shard.

Not too long later a violent shiver shook his body, and he felt panic leap through his mind for just a moment before it was gone. What was he experiencing? It was like he was growing colder, and he felt a strange feeling of despair arise. What was happening to him?

Starscream closed his optics and shook his body as if trying to dislodge the issue. But the feeling remained, and he opened his optics to see the cliff over Vos in front of him. Why was he-

The thought didn't need to be completed when he saw Axer kneeling over his grave. But it was not out of respect or grief of course.. Axer had changed a servo to the hook and was using it to dig, adding to his growing pile of dirt to his side. At first he wasn't sure what to feel or react to this, but soon he found out the answer to be anger. What was he doing? How dare he defile his gravesite in this way!

But Axer knew exactly what he wanted to do. If he couldn't hurt him physically, then why not dishonor him anyway? And Axer, being the illegal dealer he always was, knew that having this body could give him a good price. Someone out there might want this, to scrap it or whatever. Or he could just rip off some of the body parts to sell or keep as trophies. He had many choices.

Starscream leapt at Axer to fell him to the ground, but he dove right through him and skid across the ground. Anger, because he was experiencing this feeling it did not enable him to touch the physical world, but he was not in the same rage that would enable this to work either. He cried out and continued trying to grab Axer, but he just couldn't stop Axer from doing the grisly act.

Axer had stopped digging when he suddenly struck something hard. He brushed away dirt to reveal black. A little more and a couple of fingers. Starscream was despairing over seeing his dead corpse once again. But then, a large shadow passed over them. It continued into the distance before circling back. Axer froze when he saw the points of the shadow outlining wings, claws and tail. Suddenly a large thumb beside him that shook the ground. A soft growl behind them both.

Ripclaw, in her beast form towered over the kneeling Axer. She let her lower and powerful overbite jaw slacken and reveal some sharp fangs as a warning. He stood up and jumped out of the grave hole he had dug as she transformed."What are you doing here?" Was the first thing she said.

Ripclaw's bipedal form still had man beastly features. Her face, although unintentionally, still looked threatening. Her red optics, different from the usual yellow of the other Predacons, intensified her serious face.

"Nothing that concerns you," Axer responded shortly.

"It might, as it seems you are up to no good defiling a grave," she narrowed her optics down at him.

"It shouldn't trouble you though. What was he to you anyway, or do you even know his name? Or better still, what was he worth to your brethren? As I heard it, you all took turns ripping him to bits."

"That was before I was even fully developed! And yes, I know his name, and again I had no part in the murder of Starscream. But that doesn't mean I have no right to stop you from committing an illegal act!" She hissed.

Now Axer chuckled loudly. "If find it hilarious," he said. "That you are chastising me, when you, yourself are a murderer. I saw Barricade's body, you know. I saw the blood on your claws. And lest we not forget Silverbolt. You are just as guilty as I am, Predacon."

Ripclaw actually appeared remorseful. "It was an accident. I was under the effects of dark energon, I don't remember a thing. . . I don't even know about Silverbolt! But just because I'm a Predacon doesn't mean I can't respect life!" She glared at Axer now. "I am good! I would never kill someone on purpose unless they wanted to harm someone else!"

She then stepped forward suddenly, and Axer stepped back, not entirely out of fear but because he was unsure of the Predacon's intentions. Ripclaw bent over and threw some dirt over the exposed hand to cover it.

"I don't even know why I'm still talking to you, I should be apprehending you as you are an escaped criminal!"

Axer put on a saddened face. "Oh come on now, you wouldn't be that cruel, throwing me into a cell to rot with nothing to do but go insane? You don't understand my motives, why I need to take my revenge!"

"What I understand," Ripclaw said. "Is that Megatron is a changed mech and you need to accept that, and that Starscream has already paid for his actions. You should have no excuses. So, leave here, stop committing crimes, and show the world that you can be a good mech."

With that, she transformed back into her large beast mode, and pushed the dirt pile back into the hole, even patting it down a little as she stared at Axer. Axer, not quite confident enough to take on the Predacon in a one on one fight, turned and began walking the other direction. She held her guard for just a few seconds, but then she turned her back to prepare flight again. Starscream wanted to call out, he knew that you never turned your back on a bot like Axer. Instantly he drew out a spare poisoned dagger, he always made sure he had back up weapons. He rushed forward, and stabbed it into her arm. Her tail swooped around and whipped the assassin off of her, but Axer smiled when he realized he had been able to inject all the poison into her.

And he was hoping that would be enough to kill her, but he was unsure because of how large her body was. But she did not seem to notice or show any effects of the poison, and she promptly pinned Axer under her claws.

"What!?" Axer screamed in bewilderment.

Ripclaw opened her mouth and large fangs sunk into his shoulder. He screamed because of the pierce, but then because of the burning agony of venom following into him. She quickly let go and stared at the wide eyed bot below her.

He felt himself going numb, so he yelled, "what did you do? My legs… I can't feel my legs!"

She let go of him and transformed. She ripped away the dagger, and like Megatron, crushed it. They all realized the black liquid probably hadn't affected her because her being venomous was an indication she was immune to such things. He quickly whispered then, "but you said you didn't kill!"

"You tried to kill me, so you are lucky I'm such a forgiving person," she said. "I didn't give you enough venom to kill you anyway. But . . ."

She saw Axer try to get up, but he couldn't move any of his lower body. He glared and tried to transform something into a weapon, but nothing happened, his T-cog was damaged. Axer cried out, "you-you paralyzed me!"

"Again, you should be thankful you are still alive. Now you can learn your lesson, I'm giving you another chance. That's one more than the bot over there ever got," Ripclaw gestured with her head to the disturbed grave.

She then transformed one last time. She grabbed Axer between her claws and lifted off the ground. Axer groaned, not being able to do that much else. Ripclaw's retreating figure got smaller and smaller in the distance. She flew over curious vehicons, who probably assumed that Axer had been captured and was going back to the brig. But it wasn't any of their business, so they continued work.

She was gone now, but her act stayed fresh and strong in Starscream's memory. She stopped Axer, she stood up for him. And she was in fact good. Starscream finally accepted it. Predacons didn't have to be viscous, mindless beasts, for Ripclaw proved she could be powerful but intelligent and forgiving. And Axer would now be unable harm if he would have to spend the rest of his days handicapped, for stealth was his only method of killing. The problems were disappearing now. There were no more things to hate, and the world was not being cruel to him anymore . . .

It was a marvelous feeling . . . is this what peace felt like?

* * *

**Oh but we haven't reached the end yet MUHAHAHAHA there is still a lot more coming! Don't worry!**


End file.
